Mary Gauthier

“I don't really write for catharsis; I get that kind of work done in therapy.”

“They send women into combat without being prepared for women in combat. The men resented them being there, and it was just very, very difficult for them, and they had to fight for the respect they were earning. And that's all they want is the respect.”

“I have such a good life. It's something I couldn't have imagined in my wildest dreams.”

“I got sober at 27 and started writing around 30 and started playing music in public around 32, 33.”

“I think each veteran's soul has something that it needs to say. I know from my own personal traumas, it's very hard to know what that is. But when I'm watching someone else struggle, it's not as confusing for me, 'cause it's not my struggle, so I can help identify that.”

“If I start tracing, I bet I will find a writer in my family tree.”

“I think having near-death experiences, they sure made me free.”

“What I've found at 48 years old is that there's nothing about me that's unique.”

“As a songwriter, I was always mining my own depths, which were filled with confusion and darkness.”

“I think if people really listened to what our families who serve go through, we could have a realistic discussion of what it means to send young people to war.”

“Songs are here to help us: they build bridges from heart to heart.”

“The job of the artist is to go to the places where most other people are embarrassed to go to. And show it.”

“There's a universal inside of me. So if I tell my story, you're going to see parts of your story in it. I don't know which parts, but we all overlap. We're all very much alike.”

“A lot of songwriters have written about soldiers and war, but very few have written with them.”

“People in Ireland take in the whole song. After a long history of great singers and songwriters and poets, they are able to consume the entire song - not just the external; they go inside.”

“I've learned our soldiers are so much like everybody else. They're just put into an extreme situation.”

“I haven't been in the military, but I've known my share of pain. It allows me to sit with someone who's struggling and not be afraid.”

“Melody's like tweezers that go into the infection and pull out the wounded part. You can almost not stay silent in the face of a melody that matches your emotion. You feel seen.”

“Recovery stabilized me; songwriting gave me a purpose.”

“I always knew I was going to make a record called 'The Foundling.' Since I picked up a guitar, I knew it.”