Quotes from Carrie Brownstein

I felt like power meant that you had to be engaged in a certain kind of struggle by force of movement and battle - and that's very exhausting. Now, power is more about certainty and stillness and realizing that the infrastructures that we gather around and worship are the least powerful things.

To really be tortured by a song, it needs to be more than just something you don't like or don't get; it has to make your skin crawl by getting under it. Strangely, that last clause could describe provocative or daring music, as well.

My father was hard to know and gave little indication that there was much to know. He claimed he remembered almost nothing about his childhood.

When it comes to music, we should be hoping for as outlandish a Republican candidate as we can get.

In Olympia, Washington, many of us were writing songs that were the equivalent of bloodletting: This is the sound a wound makes; this is the screech of a scar. But Mary Timony was always more kaleidoscope than microscope, creating magical worlds replete with weaponry or sorcery.

Not even the creators of 'Rock Band' could possibly believe that playing the game is tantamount to making your own music. There is, however, a sad similarity between 'Rock Band' and some actual bands, and that is the attempt at realness.

So much of my intention with songs is to voice a continual dissatisfaction, or at least to claw my way out of it.

From the ashes of Bauhaus, Love and Rockets transformed its grandiosity and excesses into boldness and virtuosity. Plus, it wasn't afraid of a catchy hook or two.

There comes a time as you continue to write and work on scripts and screenplays where you realize that you have opinions about the next step of the process, and you kind of want more control over the translation from page to screen.

Sleater-Kinney is a band that we hold close to our hearts as well; it's not something that we're cynical or jaded about. We only feel gratefulness and appreciation for other people's enthusiasm about it. We would never be annoyed by that.

The 'New York Times' is my homepage because it forces me to go right into the news.

I wish I'd lived in New York in my early twenties. Or learned to speak more languages at a young age. I didn't do either.

With so much of music blurring the lines between ersatz and authenticity, at least the 'Rock Band' game is a tribute to rock rather than an affront.

The Northwest, to make a generalization, is a fairly sensitive populace. Slightly self-conscious and very self-reflexive.

I loved 'Just Kids' by Patti Smith.

I have no problem spending money on a great meal with friends or a flight to see somebody that I love, versus something like a fancy car. I don't need a fancy car. I don't need a giant TV.

I would love to do a reunion tour if it only involved basements across the U.S.

The game Rock Band has been haunting me like a bad ring tone. It gets stuck in my head and momentarily effaces all that I love about music.

Kissing is kind of scary.

I've realized that I have a lot of different loves, and I want to pursue writing, but I can never divorce myself from music.

Rihanna has guts and she always seems to be singing from someplace honest, dark and fierce.

In the realm of fakery, I would choose 'Rock Band' over 'American Idol' or over any of the other flimsy truths masquerading as music.

For a while I had somebody that came to clean my house that turned out to be in a band that I really loved.

It turns out I'm not very good at working with a traditional boss.