Ani DiFranco

“My political mission is as acute as ever. For me, in addition to kind of looking at the world and trying to engage in my society politically, having the kid around sort of makes me check in with myself. I think you're all busy trying to fix the world, but what about yourself?”

“People need something or someone to fasten themselves to in order to reassure themselves that they are real.”

“I'm searching, as we all are, for ways to feel good about myself. Certainly, looking in the mirror doesn't do it!”

“Why do you think I write these feminist songs, to try and teach myself to respect myself. You know, it's not because I'm a hero.”

“We have to be able to criticise what we love, to say what we have to say 'cause if your not trying to make something better, than as far as I can tell, you are just in the way.”

“I've been a long time coming, and I'll be a long time gone. You've got your whole life to do something, and that's not very long.”

“I do believe that music has an intense power to connect us together, to inspire us to become ourselves.”

“I basically get stereotyped a lot in terms of being a girl and writing 'chick' music for teenage girls or something. I think, if anything, the press kind of, because of my gender and my age, tends to kind of relegate my work to this sort of special-interest group. It's part of the cultural dynamic, I guess.”

“Feminism is not only for women It's something everyone can participate in, and evolve together, as the first step in the right direction. I see feminism as a tool to achieve that balance and peace.”

“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.”

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

“I have something to prove, as long as I know there's something that needs improvement, and you know that everytime I move, I make a woman's movement.”

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

“Art is why I get up in the morning, but my definition ends there. You know, it doesn't seem fair that I'm living for something I can't even define, but there you are, right there, in the meantime.”

“Taken out of context I must seem so strange.”

“I've been saying the Occupy Movement has got the ball rolling, and now we need to take the fight to the great indoors!”

“Just let me go, we have to be able to criticize what we love, to say what we have to say 'cause if you're not trying to make something better, then as far as I can tell, you are just in the way.”

“Maybe you don't like your job, maybe you didn't get enough sleep, well nobody likes their job, nobody got enough sleep. Maybe you just had the worst day of your life, but you know, there's no escape, there's no excuse, so just suck up and be nice.”

“I think the gay community should get smart and drop the word 'marriage.' Do you really need to change every right-wing Christian to make sure you get your equal rights? Eyes on the prize, we should be sticking to getting equal rights.”

“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.'”