Joanna Newsom Quotes

You should listen to a lot of different music. ~ Joanna Newsom

I am always trying to write. ~ Joanna Newsom

My voice in combination with the harp - which, by the way, I use because I've played it my entire life, not to make some statement about the harp - somehow has ... coloured people's interpretations of the music and projected an idea of childlike or fairytale quality or innocence. Which sometimes prevents people from listening to the songs the way I would like them to be listened to. ~ Joanna Newsom

Well, yeah, I wanted to resist the urge to thicken everything up with instrumentation, because I just felt like I was interested in seeing how the songs did on their own. ~ Joanna Newsom

Among the responsibilities of any writer is that, no matter what else, they know what they mean. So, even if no one else knows what you're talking about, you do. The listener can sense that, even if they don't get the literal meaning. The faith that they place in the clues and the connections and the secrets of the lyrics is of the utmost importance. ~ Joanna Newsom

What a woman does is open doors. And it is not a question of locking or unlocking. ~ Joanna Newsom

I definitely don't subscribe to the theory that more instruments, or more vocal tracks, harmony, or double tracking the voice, is a good thing. People do their early albums very stripped down, then each album becomes bloated. ~ Joanna Newsom

I didn't sing for years and years, but I started playing harp when I was maybe 9 or 10. I had actually wanted to play for years leading up to that, but no teacher in our little town would take me on as a student, because I was too young. ~ Joanna Newsom

I wasn't born of a whistle or milked from a thistle at twilight
No I was all horns and thorns sprung out fully formed, knock-kneed and upright. ~ Joanna Newsom

People are often afraid for me. They think that I am going to break. I can make it through a set. ~ Joanna Newsom

All my life, I've felt as though
I'm inside a beautiful memory, replaying
with the sound turned down low. ~ Joanna Newsom

The very first Walnut Whales recording was recorded just a few weeks after I had started singing, out of the blue, started singing. And the voice, you can hear how uncomfortable I am with it, and how terrified I am with it. ~ Joanna Newsom

I didn't really know a lot of the history when I was younger. I didn't realize that the harp is coded in such a specific way in musical circles. It's kind of this society instrument because of its history as a young woman's parlor instrument. ~ Joanna Newsom

I recorded harp first or singing first. I recorded it all together. Part of the reason is that I don't know how to play the songs without also singing. I forget how they progress. I don't think that any of them are verse, chorus, verse, and so on. They are not simple. ~ Joanna Newsom

I am consciously trying not to make it sound Celtic or African. ~ Joanna Newsom

I can understand someone not liking the voice or the songs. ~ Joanna Newsom

I had known that people would probably have strange reactions to my voice, because I have kind of an unwieldy, difficult voice, but I never thought that anybody would have a problem with the harp. I just assumed ... C'mon, it's a beautiful instrument. ~ Joanna Newsom

I fought angrily against seeing particular types of poetic organization because it seemed awful to see my own life and these actual events in that way. But when you put forth an intention into the universe to speak a certain truth and narrate a certain period of your life, you start to see the sorts of symmetries that you are not usually supposed to be able to see until you are on your deathbed and your life flashes before your eyes. And you see exactly why everything happened. And even the most painful things you've ever been through can seem unbearably beautiful. ~ Joanna Newsom

I have a recording that I did of instrumental songs. ~ Joanna Newsom

It broke my heart when I learned the moon had been passing the sun's light off as its own. ~ Joanna Newsom

I never thought people would be mortally offended by the sounds I was making. ~ Joanna Newsom

We are blessed and sustained by what is not said ~ Joanna Newsom

I have writing songs on my own for about six years. ~ Joanna Newsom

I played piano for about two years when I was a kid. I didn't play long enough to be really great. ~ Joanna Newsom

The fire breather is beneath the clover, and beneath his breathing there is cold clay forever ~ Joanna Newsom

We deserve to know light. And grow evermore lighter and lighter. ~ Joanna Newsom

I did spend a year in high school being obsessed with Fleetwood Mac. ~ Joanna Newsom

I've been unaware of how people react to the instrument. People have ideas of what a harp is supposed to sound like, and a lot of them are negative ideas. ~ Joanna Newsom

It's valid that the Strokes and the Pleased have been influenced by some of the same bands. But it's invalid in the sense that we listen to the Strokes and try to sounds like them. I think that they are a good band. ~ Joanna Newsom

And all that we built, and all that we breathed And all that we spilled or pulled up like weeds Is piled up in back and it burns irrevocably And we spoke up in turns 'til the silence crept over me. ~ Joanna Newsom

I'm a big Johnny Cash girl. And I love singers like Laura Marling and Joanna Newsom. ~ Imogen Poots

The moment of your greatest joy sustains:
Not axe nor hammer
Tumor, tremor
Can take it away, and it remains
It remains ~ Joanna Newsom

Last week, our picture window
Produced a half-word,
Heavy and hollow,
Hit by a brown bird.
We stood and watched her gape like a rattlesnake
And pant and labor over every intake.
I said a sort of prayer for some rare grace,
Then thought i ought to take her to a higher place.
Said, dog nor vulture nor cat shall toy with you,
And though you die, bird, you will have a fine view. ~ Joanna Newsom

The thing that I was experiencing and dwelling on the entire time is that there are so many things that are not OK and that will never be OK again. But there's also so many things that are OK and good that sometimes it makes you crumple over with being alive. We are allowed such an insane depth of beauty and enjoyment in this lifetime. It's what my dad talks about sometimes. He says the only way that he knows there's a God is that there's so much gratuitous joy in this life. And that's his only proof. There's so many joys that do not assist in the propagation of the race or self-preservation. There's no point whatsoever. They are so excessively, mind-bogglingly joy-producing that they distract from the very functions that are supposed to promote human life. They can leave you stupefied, monastic, not productive in any way, shape or form. And those joys are there and they are unflagging and they are ever-growing. And still there are these things that you will never be able to feel OK about–unbearably awful, sad, ugly, unfair things. ~ Joanna Newsom

I wasn't interested in writing music that wasn't beautiful for me to listen to. ~ Joanna Newsom

I was once asked to pick a couple of records for an interview I was doing on Radio 2. I picked one by Will Oldham and one by Joanna Newsom. Someone on the production phoned me to say that I couldn't have either record because they were 'too alternative' and I could just pick two from their playlist. Now, personally, I think that Radio 2's listeners would dig both Joanna Newsom and Will Oldham if they heard their records, and that the fact they don't get to hear them contributes to the cultural wasteland we live in. I told them that I'd been to see Joanna Newsom in the Albert Hall a couple of weeks before and it had been sold out. How could she be 'too alternative'?
'Alternative' and 'mainstream' aren't strictly to do with whether things are popular or minority interest. They are ideological labels. Someone like Joe Pasquale would be called 'mainstream' and regularly pops up on TV, but would play the smaller end of the touring-theatre circuit. If Joanna Newsom can sell out Albert Hall, why can't she get played on Radio 2? I would agree that it's because her work is too layered, challenging and interesting. Think about that. What you get to hear about is filtered, and not filtered to get rid of useless cunts like Joe Pasquale, but of things that might enrich your life. ~ Frankie Boyle

The so-called positive press has in some ways been more difficult to swallow than the negative. ~ Joanna Newsom

If you want me to do something else useful, you had better show me what that something else is. ~ Joanna Russ

I cannot get into this swamp or I will never get out; and if I start crying again I'll remember that I have no one to love, and if anyone treats me like that again, I'll kill him. Only I mustn't because they'll punish me. ~ Joanna Russ

He said to tell you that he has me and Sophie. He's going to kill us if you don't do what he says. He's also a giant fucking pussy, and I think when you catch him, you should let me cut out his balls with a dull spoon before shooting him in the head. ~ Joanna Wylde

I'm very good at getting up in the morning - so much of my life has been spent on film sets where we start at the crack of dawn. ~ Joanna Lumley

When we really start searching for the truth in stories, we can find it everywhere, not just in sincere confessions but in the deliberate lies and imagined possibilities, the magic and fantasy, and all the other unreal elements that go into the concoction of identity. ~ Joanna Scott

I tried once, you know, went to a dance all dressed up, but I felt like such a fool. Everyone kept making encouraging remarks about my looks as if they were afraid I'd cross back over the line again; I was trying, you know, I was proving their way of life was right, and they were terrified I'd stop. ~ Joanna Russ

Half-uttered praise is to the curious mind, as to the eye half-veiled beauty is, more precious than the whole. ~ Joanna Baillie

I realize that labels are placed upon an individual to simplify him or her, but it is impossible to capture the essence of an individual by a few words. ~ Joanna Lohman

The game is a dominance game called I Must Impress This Woman. Failure makes the active player play harder. Wear a hunched back or a withered arm; you will then experience the invisibility of the passive player. I'm never impressed -- no woman ever is -- it's just a cue that you like me and I'm supposed to like that. If you really like me, maybe I can get you to stop. Stop; I want to talk to you! Stop; I want to see you! Stop; I'm dying and disappearing!
SHE: Isn't it just a game?
HE: Yes, of course.
SHE: And if you play the game, it means you like me, doesn't it?
HE: Of course.
SHE: Then if it's just a game and you like me, you can stop playing. Please stop.
HE: No.
SHE: Then I won't play.
HE: Bitch! You want to destroy me. I'll show you. (He plays harder)
SHE: All right. I'm impressed.
HE: You really are sweet and responsive after all. You've kept your femininity. You're not one of those hysterical feminist bitches who wants to be a man and have a penis. You're a woman.
SHE: Yes. (She kills herself) ~ Joanna Russ

I need you, Mel. I need you way too much as a friend to risk it. I know I've done a truly shitty job trying to communicate with you about this, but if you had any idea how important you are to me ... Christ, you're one of the few things that kept me sane inside. Thinking about you, getting your letters. We gotta find a way, babe. We can't do this. ~ Joanna Wylde

I am now an old lioness, if I see my young ones getting out of order, I've got to be able to say to them this is not how lions behave. This is not right. ~ Joanna Lumley

Men like us, we live to ride, and ride to live ~ Joanna Wylde

She said that instead of conquering Everest, I could conquer the conqueror of Everest and while he had to go climb the mountain, I could stay home in lazy comfort listening to the radio and eating chocolates. She was upset, I suppose, but you can't imbibe someone's success by fucking them. ~ Joanna Russ

We can build new housing while preserving the quality and character of adjacent residential districts and ensuring infill development strengthens the surrounding neighborhood. ~ Gavin Newsom

I'd describe myself as a saver, but just sometimes I can spend like a kicking horse! Ryman is the one shop I can't go past without going into. I just can't resist lovely stationery. ~ Joanna Lumley

I do not like being an old gal. But I've decided to be the best old gal I know how to be. ~ Joanna J. Gnadt

Gratitude for the gift of life is the primary wellspring of all religions, the hallmark of the mystic, the source of all true art ... It is a privilege to be alive in this time when we can choose to take part in the self-healing of our world. ~ Joanna Macy

In my opinion, questions that are based on something real ought to be settled by something real without all this damned lazy miserable drifting ~ Joanna Russ

Because the relationship between self and world is reciprocal, it is not a matter of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting. As we work to heal the Earth, the Earth heals us. No need to wait. As we care enough to take risks, we loosen the grip of ego and begin to come home to our true nature. ~ Joanna Macy

*****WARNING: ADULT CONTENT INTENDED FOR A MATURE AUDIENCE******

"Her pussy juices welled into the cunt as Larry continued to pound it hard and fast, his dick making a sloshing sound in the pussy. As he fucked her like a whore, he felt his cock starting to explode.
"I'm coming, I'm coming! ~ Joanna Lyndstrom

I always love writing about children. ~ Joanna Trollope

One by one, the villager torches are lit, and a fire spreads through their circle until it blazes like an enormous bullion ring. ~ Joanna Wiebe

He's always been absolutely gorgeous and had that charm, but he was in a steady relationship until quite recently, so it's only of late that all the girls are like, 'Oh my God, oh my God'. ~ Joanna Page

The truth is, I pretend to be a cynic, but I am really a dreamer who is terrified of wanting something she may never get. ~ Joanna Hoffman

It's nice when you happen into a vegetarian restaurant, but really, you can find veggie food everywhere. Pastas, salads, a vegetable plate - I actually like ordering vegetarian in a meaty place because it gives them a jolt to come up with something and recognize the demand. ~ Joanna Lumley

You're a pig," I whispered back. "You know that, right?"
"So far bein' a pig works for me, babe," he said. "Gotta go now. Check out the college. Hit the clinic and get some pills. Don't call your brother. Cook something fuckin' great for dinner and don't wear any panties. That's all I ask. ~ Joanna Wylde

I'm three quarters Scottish, but I sound English. I don't really see British as a race. ~ Joanna Lumley

She trusted her instincts; she trusted those dear to her; she trusted her emotions and her passions. She drank deep, you could see that; she squeezed every drop of living out of all the elements that mattered to her. It made her careless sometimes, of course it did, but it was a wonderfully rich and rapt way to be. ~ Joanna Trollope

But there is not much time to regret other people, their actions or inactions. Isn't drowning itself enough for one day? Here ~ Joanna Walsh

Abundance: The Future is Better than you Think by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler. ~ Joanna Penn

I'm a mother lion when it comes to protecting my children. ~ Joanna Cassidy

Is one of the sins our unbridled economic self-interest, which turns its back on the common good in pursuit of individual wealth? Might it be our careless exploitation and waste of precious natural resources, which threaten future generations with scarcity of water, wood, minerals, clean air, and all those essential things we need to survive? ~ Joanna Leiserson

You can change yourself and you can change the situation but you absolutely cannot change other people. Only they can do that. ~ Joanna Trollope

We didn't know what made "great TV." We were just trying to make a living and trying hard to honor the craft we had both fallen in love with over the years. ~ Joanna Gaines

The shortest way to get to the real answer is via the imaginary ~ Joanna Tilsley

You don't need to do everything. Do what calls your heart; effective action comes from love. It is unstoppable, and it is enough. ~ Joanna Macy

Good gracious, Jerry, you'll probably have to marry the girl.'
Joanna was half serious, half laughing.
It was at that moment that I made a very important discovery.
'Damn it all,' I said. 'I don't mind if I do. In fact - I should like it.'
A very funny expression came over Joanna's face. She got up and said dryly, as she went toward the door, 'Yes, I've known that for some time ... '
She left me standing, glass in hand, aghast at my new discovery. ~ Agatha Christie

Leaning her silly, beautiful, drunken head on my shoulder, she said, "Oh, Esther, I don't want to be a feminist. I don't enjoy it. It's no fun."
"I know," I said. "I don't either." People think you decide to be a "radical," for God's sake, like deciding to be a librarian or a ship's chandler. You "make up your mind," you "commit yourself" (sounds like a mental hospital, doesn't it?).
I said Don't worry, we could be buried together and have engraved on our tombstone the awful truth, which some day somebody will understand:
WE WUZ PUSHED. ~ Joanna Russ

Being busy is a distraction and I am sure that doing nothing, resting and sleeping are all good cures for modern life. I am not suggesting we all do nothing but sleep, however, sometimes stopping long enough to 'be' can be very powerful. ~ Joanna Runciman

You see that? That big messy spiral of people, moving, trying to find God? I ask them, as the exodus unfolds once again on screen.
That right there is Zion. Get there however you can. ~ Joanna Brooks

Ruger's eyes darkened.
"You want this as much as I do," he said, voice soft. "It's not goin' away. We're just going to burn up higher and higher until one of us explodes and we get hurt. Let's end it now. I need inside you, Sophie. ~ Joanna Wylde

You ready to go home?" I asked.
"I've been ready to go home all night. I still hate you."
"You need to find new insults. That's getting old."
"Fuck off."
Grinning, I climbed onto my bike. She climbed up behind me, tucking in tight and wrapping her arms around my waist, tits pressed against my back. For the first time in forever things in my world felt right, twisted as that sounds.
She was mine. She'd always be mine. ~ Joanna Wylde

San Franciscans know we live in the most beautiful city in the world, a jewel on the edge of the Golden Gate. ~ Gavin Newsom

You deserve a man who'll fight for you, baby girl. You remember that, all right? ~ Joanna Wylde

Privileged groups, like everyone else, want to think well of themselves and to believe that they are acting generously and justly. ~ Joanna Russ

don't cry because someone is making fun of you get up and keep walking like nothing happened and be happy! ~ Joanna Loffleor

You see, there weren't these magazines like 'Heat' in my day. Always waiting to trip up these pretty girls and make them seem something horrible, something to make them look stupid and small and ugly and disgusting. ~ Joanna Lumley

You can't help parts of yourself leaking into other characters. ~ Joanna Trollope

I was involved with the landmines before the Princess of Wales, and nobody gave a damn about people losing their limbs. It only became a success when she came along. ~ Joanna Lumley