Fiona Apple

Five years from now I’m probably going to look back on the things I’m doing and cringe.

I was so self-critical. I still am, but it’s not as bad anymore.

When you’re surrounded by all these people, it can be even lonelier than when you’re by yourself. You can be in a huge crowd, but if you don’t feel like you can trust anybody or talk to anybody, you feel like you’re really alone.

I have a very steadfast tendency to parent myself, to monitor my development into the person I want to be. I’ve tried to keep the corruption minimal.

Nothing that you do will ever feel good if you let people convince you that you have no choice.

The way I feel about music is that there is no right and wrong. Only true and false.

I read on the Internet that I was dead.

Now I feel like whatever I do, no one can hurt me. I cannot be violated, I cannot be humiliated, I cannot be disregarded, I cannot be disrespected.

If I respect myself and believe in what I’m doing, no one can touch me.

I still don’t know what Episcopalian means.

I don’t know if anybody wants to mix their politics with their entertainment.

I got into therapy in the fifth grade because I said in a sarcastic way that I was going to kill myself, and they didn’t get it then. Nothing’s changed.

I wanted to write a happy song. I didn’t know how.

There aren’t many poster children for cool angst. Everybody thinks it’s cool if you’re the bad girl.

I’m not used to not having enough time to live with the songs. Usually, if I write something, I live with it for a little while.

I really don’t think anything I do is a mistake. It could be if I didn’t learn from it.

I don’t care what people do. I don’t care how people remember my albums. I do them for my own reasons.

I’m not a control freak.

Rape is the most humiliating thing that can be done to you; it’s the most vulnerable that you can be. But once I realized that, I became a stronger person and faced all my fears.

I don’t want to give any advice to a 19-year-old, because I want a 19-year-old to make mistakes and learn from them. Make mistakes, make mistakes, make mistakes. Just make sure they’re your mistakes.

I’m incredibly impressed by people who organize to achieve a goal, and believe that they can make a difference and then go ahead and do just that. I think it’s incredible.

I don’t have a big thing about leaving my mark or being historic.

My whole life, people have been saying, Why are you so angry?

For me, the best times are always going to be the most intense, the ones with the highest highs and the lowest lows.

I caved in to what people wanted me to do. I thought that they weren’t going to like me if I didn’t.

The quick success was a bit strange to get used to.

I want to be like the patron saint of reality.

I know what my job is: I write the songs, I sing them, I play them on the piano.

The age thing really bugs me. Do people have more of a right to not like what I say because I’m 19?

I would really like to go back to school. I would love it now.

I never thought I’d be in a position where people would be talking about my sexuality and saying how good I look in underwear.

I’ve gone through stages where I hate my body so much that I won’t even wear shorts and a bra in my house because if I pass a mirror, that’s the end of my day.

I resent limitations. I’m going to be this way for a while.

What’s really good is African drum music.

I’m here because of what I write. Obviously, I must know something.

I’ve never been to the websites. It’s a lot healthier for me to keep out of the conversations about me.

For a while after the rape, I was afraid of my own sexuality, because I got raped right about the time when I started developing physically.

I got drunk when I was five. Everybody gets drunk before they’re 21.

Sometimes interviews are fun and good conversations, but stuff like photo shoots and appearances at places where you have to meet a lot of people – I was never really made for this kind of stuff.

I dare anybody to look at me and say I’m anorexic. I’m so totally not.

I got all my work done to graduate in two months and then they were like, I’m sorry, you have to take driver’s ed. I just kind of went, Oh, forget it.

I never went to concerts when I was a kid, so I never knew if what I was doing onstage was right.

Everybody sees me as this sullen and insecure little thing. Those are just the sides of me that I feel it’s necessary to show because no one else seems to be showing them.