Quotes from Martie Maguire

Even though we were selling more records than a lot of pop acts, we were being treated like the redheaded stepchildren.

Don't put celebrities up on this pedestal. We are human beings.

Costumes are great. That kind of effort tells the audience that the performer has taken the time to be the total package.

I was concerned about being 40 and for my 40th birthday my wish was to go see Cher, and I got to meet her.

We came out of bluegrass, so we could play.

We have to make a living and you can't do that playing bluegrass.

We are bound to make mistakes.

I grew up going to bluegrass festivals, and there were performers who got on stage and didn't say much. They would stand there, stone-faced, picking. I could appreciate that, but it taught me that a little showmanship and some personality adds so much to a performance.

You can't just keep bottling the same thing over and over again and think the audience isn't going to catch on.

We started to overthink things in the Dixie Chicks and do things we thought people wanted us to do.

At the Grammys, how many performances were with women playing instruments? Is it still surprising that a female can play an instrument proficiently?

I am a really passive person to begin with so I have written a lot of pretty crappy songs with strangers because I let it go in a direction that I didn't feel it should have and I didn't know them well enough to speak up.

Any time the Chicks want to play, that takes precedence, because we can make a lot of money.

We have an older sister who gets pregnant easily. So Emily and I think there may be an environmental cause for our problems. Neither of us were very old when we started trying. But we've lived very parallel lives. We've been in a band together since I was 12 and she was 10. We can't help but wonder, did we stay in a hotel near a power plant?

In the beginning, if you look at those early label albums of the Chicks, we didn't write all that much. We had an A&R person and they were getting songs from publishers, listening to hours and hours of cassette tapes.

I would never go on 'Dancing With the Stars,' because I'm not the greatest dancer in the world. But when I watch 'The Apprentice' sometimes I'm like, 'I could do that task.' The only reason I would not do that is that I could never call people for money and on that show you have to be willing to call people for money.

You know, I think it's something I want to teach my children, to ask questions and not be afraid to disagree with people in power. Always question, scrutinize everything they do, because they are leading the country, and it's important to me. That is patriotic.

The older I get the more laid back I am about whatever happens, happens.

I play a little acoustic bass and a little guitar. In our house there are instruments everywhere, and I love picking them up and just noodling around. I pick up my husband's tin whistle sometimes. He's really proficient, but it's about the second most annoying instrument - after the banjo - if you don't know how to play it.

Everyone has their own opinion about what should be on the radio and I think there's room for all different people.

I was born with great eyelashes. They just do what I want them to do.

We were the ones that from the beginning said that 'Wide Open Spaces' was a hit. 'This is a hit, people are going to relate to it.'

While we were promoting 'Wide Open Spaces,' we set aside time to write. We went on several writing retreats where nobody could get hold of us. It was the only way we could take a step back and reflect and write and be living a semi-normal life for a while.

I think people in the public eye have a problem - they can have security issues.