Alison Krauss

“People are always very nice.”

“Growing up, we had folk records.”

“Some things feel really good to sing: there's a physical aspect, but there's more to it - a deeper place you go to.”

“It's not that I have resisted songwriting, it's just not something I felt I have had to do. I've just not woken up and thought, I must do this. But I have often heard music that I have instantly felt 'I have to sing that song'.”

“There are so many great songs yet to sing.”

“I don't know if bliss is possible and I've always thought that my best times will be later in life.”

“I don't go there much. You're thrilled that people would recognize what you're doing in such a grand kind of way. But, just like you don't know if anybody's really going to like what you're doing when you put a record out or if anybody's going to pay attention to it, you can't really go there.”

“Songs come from all over the place. You can't predict what you're going to like. You might like something that doesn't fit right now. What was working for you at one point, something you've loved for years and years, when you get together with everybody, you think, this doesn't match up with what's going on with you personally.”

“It's impossible to make a record when you're ill because it affects how you listen to things. You can't make decisions. It all sounds terrible.”

“Lyrics are kind of the whole thing; it's the message. Something might have a beautiful melody but if it's not the truth coming out of your mouth, it's not appealing.”

“When it's open and honest, that's when the real nature of who you are as a vocalist or as a performer, all of that stuff can finally start to become what it's supposed to be. Like a settling into yourself. It's not even a musical thing, it's a whole mindset, a whole acceptance of who you were supposed to be. Life sounds good.”

“I find the songs I want to record by listening to as much music as I can. 'When I hear things I really like, I ask the writers to send me a tape of everything they've ever written.”

“I love hard singing.”

“The grand old lady of bluegrass? Well, wouldn't that be a wonderful title to have? I hope I do enough to earn it some day.”

“I never had any big dreams about doing something on a huge scale.”

“My parents made us do everything, try everything.”

“Growing up I used to love bands like Free and ELO and the Rolling Stones. When Robert Plant got in touch it made perfect sense to me.”

“You know, for most of its life bluegrass has had this stigma of being all straw hats and hay bales and not necessarily the most sophisticated form of music. Yet you can't help responding to its honesty. It's music that finds its way deep into your soul because it's strings vibrating against wood and nothing else.”

“Being in the studio is a really romantic time.”

“If you don't know what makes green, you're going to try every color combination.”