A biography for Joni Mitchellhasn’t been written yet.
“With a painting, you don't have to go back and paint it again.”
“I do have this reputation for being a serious person.”
“I see bodies as individual things.”
“Buddy Holly and the early rock 'n' roll was no lighter than the way I play. It's very minimal.”
“For the first time in my career, I'm working in a fine-arts arena, so I'm finally getting some intelligent reviews.”
“Americans have decided to be stupid and shallow since 1980.”
“I'm not a pitiable creature. It's just that I suffer very eloquently.”
“What I do is unusual: chordal movements that have never been used before, changing keys and modalities mid-song.”
“The Beginning of Survival is my best album. I am very proud of it, and I am surprised at it, too. I thought some of Travelogue was a little heavy, but I don't think this is heavy.”
“Ira Gershwin, shame on him. I mean, some of the writing.”
“The songwriting was almost like something I did while I was waiting for my daughter to come back.”
“We love our lovin'....but not like we love our freedom.”
“I'm irresponsible to my career in order to paint. Because painting is obsessive. I forget to eat. I forget to sleep.”
“America is in a runaway-train position and dragging all the world with it. It's grotesquely mentally ill.”
“I have an aversion to being mislabeled. Here's a label I'd accept: I'm an 'individual.' I'm someone who can't follow, and doesn't want to lead.”
“My goal as a writer is more to comfort than to disturb.”
“Rachmaninoff made a musician out of me. His 'Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini' was the piece that sent me into raptures. It spoke to me. To me, it was a tender entreaty for the misunderstood.”
“I've looked at life from both sides now From up and down and still somehowIt's life's illusions I recallI really don't know life at all”
“I'm a little young for retirement.”
“אף על פי שהבעיות שלי היו במידה מסוימת בעיות נשיות, הפמיניסטיות לא היו לי לעזר. הייתי מעבר לכל זה. אני לא רוצה לריב עם גברים. צריך לתקן את הגברים. הפמיניסטיות חיקו אותם.”