Alanis Morissette

I try to keep a low profile in general. Not with my art, but just as a person.

Well, as a kid I did not get Shakespeare. I just never understood it.

Down the road, I’ll probably have a kid or two or three. And there will probably be political events or spiritual things to comment on, and humor.

I guess what people forget sometimes is that when I write songs, I write them sometimes in about 20 minutes.

A good man often appears gauche simply because he does not take advantage of the myriad mean little chances of making himself look stylish. Preferring truth to form, he is not constantly at work upon the facade of his appearance.

I felt like I was making a record under the radar, and that is my favorite way to do anything.

And if I had a preference, it would be to be able to not be in the studio until 4 in the morning.

But once I acclimated and really used fame for what it was offering me as a tool to serve my life purpose of inspiring and contributing, then it started to get fun again.

At some point, I would like to write a book and other things, but I work best when there is some sort of deadline in my own mind, but not when fifty people or fifty million people are breathing down the back of my neck.

When I start writing songs and it turns into an overly belabored intellectual process, I just throw it out.

The thing I always default to is that I’ll always be here to write songs.

Anything I do has to be directly related to my music. If it isn’t, I don’t really see a point to it.

At one point, I was just perceived as only being angry, but now I’m being perceived as angry, peaceful, and spiritual.

I happen to be lucky in that I knew what I wanted to do as far as a career since I was nine years old.

In my opinion, I think sarcasm and humor in a song, without turning it into a novelty song, is really charming.

I saw music as a way to entertain people and take them away from their daily lives and put smiles on their faces, as opposed to what I see it being now, which is a way for me to actually communicate, and a way for me to tap into my subconscious.

I think some fans want everything to stay they same because they want to stay the same.

It’s when someone has an agenda of their own for the record that it doesn’t work for me.

I love songs that are very autobiographical.

I remember thinking during those times that I wanted to write in a way where there are no rules.

I could write six songs in one day with everything that’s going on.

I’ll keep evolving and put that into my songs.

Making a movie requires 20 to 500 people to make and a lot of money and the stakes are a lot higher.

And I always laugh at that, because I think I’ve always been doing what I want to do since Day 1.

And ultimately the people who produce my records, they know that they’re here to serve the purpose of me expressing who I am at this period of time and augmenting that or pulling it forward and I love that process.

I see the whole concept of Generation X implies that everyone has lost hope.

I was born in ’74, so I missed out on all the great early ’60s and early ’70s.

They’re different kinds of challenges depending upon what phase of life I’m in.

I see my body as an instrument, rather than an ornament.

What I try to keep in mind is that there are going to be a lot of articles that are going to be misrepresentative of what I’m about as a person and as a writer.

When I was producing on my own, I was doing it in order to – in a very patriarchal entertainment industry, let alone planet – very much hell-bent on trying to prove to myself, if nothing else, that I could do it as a woman.

I’m doing it because I choose it. And if it’s not working, I can make a change.

I was motivated by just thinking that if you had all this external success that everyone would love you and everything would be peaceful and wonderful.

We’ll love you just the way you are if you’re perfect.

As long as I can say what it is that I need to say, then I’ll fit whatever I’m trying to say around a melody.

The person who knows HOW will always have a job. The person who knows WHY will always be his boss.

I want to walk through life instead of being dragged through it.