Quotes from Janis Ian

I think these last 10 years have seen just a huge shift in the psyche of this country as regards gay people. I think AIDS had a lot to do with it. So many families who really believed they'd 'never met one' were suddenly confronted with their sons becoming ill, and friends of sons. I think that brought a lot of it into the open.

There will always be those people who are just backward and ignorant. There will always be those people. They need somebody to feel superior to.

Those of us with ravaged faces, lacking in the social graces, desperately remained at home, inventing lovers on the phone.

I've always been an avid reader. If I don't have a book in the car, I'll stop and pick one up just to have something to read. I don't even remember learning to read.

Once you're halfway home, you know that you can probably get the rest of the way there.

I learned the truth at seventeen, That love was meant for beauty queens, And high school girls with clear skinned smiles, Who married young and then retired.

At the end of the day, all you can hope for is to go on. The older I get, the more I realize that just keeping on keeping on is what life's all about.

That's an amazing moment, the first time you hear yourself on radio. It's still thrilling.

I gave guitar lessons. I tried to join bands. My mom always said it was obvious that nothing was going to stop me.

So remember those who win the game Lose the love they sought to gain In debitures of quality and dubious integrity Their small-town eyes will gape at you In dull surprise when payment due Exceeds accounts received at seventeen

The heart of a city Is the soul of a man It winds like a river Through the heart of the land They can tear down a building They can tear down a park They can strike at a symbol But they can't strike the heart

A friend of mine once told me 'For people like us, the meaning is the search for the meaning.

I feel I was born with the music coming to me, and that's not something to be wasted.

Once you're halfway home, you know that you can probably get the rest of the way there.

My parents both were doing the Civil Rights Movement, were very involved with the civil rights to Congress. And my friends' parents were as well.

I've always been an avid reader. If I don't have a book in the car, I'll stop and pick one up just to have something to read. I don't even remember learning to read.

At the end of the day, all you can hope for is to go on. The older I get, the more I realize that just keeping on keeping on is what life's all about.

I was interviewed for a Grammy television show, and they asked me about Nashville, and I talked for three minutes and when I finished, I was teared up. The whole room was crying. Nashville has given me a home, where I never had a home before.

Libraries are a hallmark of a civilized culture, and librarians represent that culture to all facets of society.

The best thing you can learn from the worst times of your life is that it always gets better. It may take a month, a year, a decade, but it will get better if you leave yourself open to it.

I know just enough Japanese to get by if I get lost and greet an audience properly, just from having a lot of Japanese friends and being there over the years.

I love seeing teachers outside of school. It's like seeing a dog walk on its hind legs.

I was one of I think three white girls in my school. So, I was very much an outsider. And plus I was Jewish and all of my friends were black and Baptist because they listen to the coolest music. We were all listening to Ray Charles and what was then called race music.

It's neat to have finally reached a point where I can accept what I was and what I am.