Quotes from Joni Mitchell

Applause, applause, life is our cause.

My individual, psychological descent coincided, ironically, with my ascent into the public eye.

I came through folk music simply because it was easy to get into it.

This is a nation that has lost the ability to be self-critical, and that makes a lie out of the freedoms.

I come from pioneer stock, developers of the West, people who went out into the wilderness and set up home with nothing but a pair of oxen.

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.

But now it's just another show, you leave em laughing when you go. And if you care, don't let them know, don't give yourself away.

I think I would go further into fine arts, I think, if I were to continue.

I learned a woman is never an old woman.

When I began experimenting, people weren't ready for it. Once it's in its second and third generational stages, people can accept it.

We're captive on the carousel of time, we can't return we can only look behind.

When the world becomes a massive mess with nobody at the helm, it's time for artists to make their mark.

It's life's illusions that I recall, I really don't know life at all

My life came down to being a granny and watching a lot of television.

You know, Neil Young is singing Rock n' roll will never die, and Neil never rocked and rolled in his life. I mean, he rocked, but he didn't roll. He has got no swing in him.

I met a woman She had a mouth like yours She knew your life She knew your devils and your deeds And she said "Go to him, stay with him if you can But be prepared to bleed

I've got 50 different tunings in the guitar.

Paul Simon started piling up a lot of words, more than the bar could handle, and I stopped!

I loved Debussy, Stravinsky, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, anything with romantic melodies, especially the nocturnes. Nietzsche was a hero, especially with 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra.' He gets a bad rap; he's very misunderstood. He's a maker of individuals, and he was a teacher of teachers.

My name had gone stale, and no matter how progressive I got, it was my time to die.

Innocence is drowned in anarchy. The best lack conviction given time to think, and the worst are full of passion without mercy.

Everyone I know has attention deficit, and they say it with great pride. It's a bad time to be right.

I have one piece of music, since 1997, and I don't see it having lyrics. Where does it go in this world? So I haven't recorded it.

Musically, I would never run dry. Any time I sit down to an instrument, I could write a song.