Ray LaMontagne

“I'm very uncomfortable in my own skin.”

“I don't like myself, and I don't like to be looked at.”

“There's a real sense of desperation when you grow up in poverty.”

“I feel calm when I'm on my own.”

“I want to write music that will outlive me.”

“I have a strong sense of self, but that's not a negative thing.”

“I probably wouldn't be a songwriter if I didn't grow up the way I did. It was difficult and it was at times very scary to grow up in a household so unsettled and at times very violent. But, it also, I guess it earned me a sort of wisdom at a young age that's served me well.”

“I don't really think of myself as a folk singer.”

“The thing I love about music is that you can take things that are painful, deep things that hurt you, and you can turn them into something beautiful.”

“I need space between me and the audience - and the more space the better.”

“I'm a private person.”

“I want to be in control of my own destiny.”

“In order to get a note out, I have to dig deep, and I mean that on an emotional level. To physically sing, I have to get somewhere deep before I can do it.”

“Social situations, for me - it's very natural for me to be an observer. That's where I'm most comfortable. I observe things.”

“I am very self-critical, but that's a good thing because it keeps me growing as a human being and as a musician.”

“The label doesn't do anything but put your record in the store, that's all they do. And tell you, you don't have a single... and tell you, it's not gonna sell... that's what the label does.”

“My backstory is so tedious.”

“I can't get excited by my own music. It's impossible.”

“We all have that inner voice that is wise, even if we don't always follow it. It's that voice I'm trying to listen to.”

“I was really lost for a while in my teens. I was angry. But when I found music - Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell - it was a new discovery. It was a door to this other world where I wanted to be.”