Ani DiFranco

It can be very frustrating and very deflating to be constantly defined and described by other people, so I've stopped reading anything written about me, and I find it much healthier. I just sort of concentrate on what I do and don't worry too much about that.

I think I'm a very solitary person. To actually not be anonymous is a bit claustrophobic for me.

Either you are a feminist or you are a sexist/misogynist. There is no box marked 'other.'

Being a parent has taught me a lot of things already, you know, though it's only been a year and half, and has made me address parts of myself that I would otherwise live in comfortable denial of, or you know and - you know, for instance, my self-loathing.

It's great being your own boss, but then, you know, you make your own mistakes, you know, and you own them. You know, so it's empowering, and it's also humbling along the way.

Strangers are exciting, their mystery never ends. But, there's nothing like looking at your own history in the faces of your friends.

I'd rather be able to face myself in the bathroom mirror than be rich and famous.

Someone's got to be interested in how I feel, just because I'm here and I'm real.

There isn't much I have to say, that I wouldn't rather just shut up and do.

Men make angry music and it's called rock-and-roll; women include anger in their vocabulary and suddenly they're angry and militant.

Love is a piano dropped from a fourth story window, and you were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Pop stardom is not very compelling. I'm much more interested in a relationship between performer and audience that is of equals. I came up through folk music, and there's no pomp and circumstance to the performance. There's no, like, 'I'll be the rock star, you be the adulating fan.'