Iris DeMent

I never set out to write songs about the world around me… it just kind of came about as a result of paying more attention to things.

I honestly don’t listen to a lot of music – I spend so much time working at my own music.

If something bothers me, it bothers me for a long time until I find a way to work it out. Music provided me with a means of working things out.

I’ve always written about things that cause me to feel something.

Turn off the TV and start digging around for information that’s not from a corporation trying to make money.

I’ve always been aware of having feelings that were pretty intense at times. I imagine most people have had that, or they wouldn’t be human.

I don’t know what other people are like, I haven’t been able to crawl inside anybody else.

Writing, overall, has never been what I’d call fun. It’s fulfilling. It doesn’t come real easy for me.

And I’ve been walking ’round with memories way too long.

Making the record was tons of fun, the most fun I’ve ever had.

Maybe I spent more time dwelling on emotions than some people, and maybe that’s why I ended up writing.

For a long time I was interested in being a social worker. In a lot of ways I feel that that’s all my music is, trying to help people.

My guitar is really tempermental. I don’t give up on it though, I’m close to my guitar!

Some guy refuses to fight and we call that the sin, but he’s standing up for what he believes in and that seems pretty damned American to me.

I don’t describe myself as a Christian or religious, but I like to think that how I live my life is honest.

This is how it has been since time began: If you want to make something really worthwhile and true, then you have to suffer for it.

I was mainly influenced by the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard, and others like Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash.

Most of the music you hear on the radio today is developed for making money. It doesn’t feel true or honest. You can feel it in the music.