Cat Power

“I've always dressed like a dude.”

“Life is hard and it gets worse and worse and worse.”

“I've always done things myself. I've never bragged or screamed that I produced a record before. I never told anybody.”

“I still haven't been able to capture the joy of what it's like when I sing - you know, when I'm by myself, or like when I was a little kid.”

“Everybody tends to think I'm crazy, which is the biggest problem in my life.”

“I got told so many times I needed a manager. For a long time I resisted, and I finally got one so I can pay my mortgage, and it helped me from becoming a homeless person.”

“Playing the guitar, you kind of lock into a rhythm and a groove, and then it relaxes me to make up lyrics and sing.”

“There's just a lot of stuff that really moves me, and I don't know how to express it, and I just want to try to do the best I can and surround myself with good people who don't invalidate me.”

“I need to be able to face things.”

“I've never had a clique. It's impossible when you're always traveling.”

“Usually, I'll just sit down at a piano or with a guitar, and I'll just be relaxed and playing music. Because that's what relaxes your subconscious. That's why everyone from animals to humans love music.”

“I'm not a professional entertainer. I'm not Neil Diamond.”

“I moved to Los Angeles to be with a man I loved.”

“Hip-hop and R&B is mostly what I listen to. I don't have a connection with punk rock - I just never had that experience.”

“From folk to tribal to Cab Calloway, Cole Porter, Gershwin to the Rolling Stones, whose first record was all covers, to country-western, bebop, blues, and even the referencing in classic hip hop to cliched love ballads of the '80s or whatever - that is kinda gone, and that's just terrifying to me.”

“I think the hardest thing about my life is that I've met so many people all over the world who I love, but they're not friends with each other.”

“If your parents gave you fire to play with when you were two, you'd be standing in fire by the time you were an adult.”

“We're always going to remind ourselves of our mistakes and how we do things differently, trying to be a better person or whatever.”

“I got more guts than brains, and that's my problem.”

“People tend to think I'm insane, and I'm really tired of it.”