Alanis Morissette

Anything I do has to be directly related to my music. If it isn’t, I don’t really see a point to it.

I want to walk through life instead of being dragged through it.

I see my body as an instrument, rather than an ornament.

Well, as a kid I did not get Shakespeare. I just never understood it.

We’ll love you just the way you are if you’re perfect.

I am what I am Are you what you are or What?

The reason I write music is that I feel it’s a vehicle or channel which leads to your true self, your essence.

In our local Baptist church, I sang in the choir and formed a gospel quartet. When our minister caught me messing with his guitar, he taught me three positions – one, four and five. After that, I taught myself to play.

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of someone else.

I worked hard learning harmony and theory when I was growing up in Chicago in the 1920s.

It’s not technique — it’s what you have to say.

A musician starting out today should get a great teacher and learn all there is to know about the instrument.

The value of music is not dazzling yourself and others with technique.

There is no such thing as a wrong note.

I’ve had a lot of things to be proud of in my life, but none more than the Jazz festival.

Playing the guitar is like telling the truth – you never have to worry about repeating the same [lie] if you told the truth. You don’t have to pretend, or cover up. If someone asks you again, you don’t have to think about it or worry about it because there it is. It’s you.

It could be my British need for discipline that makes me admire the American appetite for freedom and passion.

A great thing about being a musician is you don’t stop until the day you die.

Jazz goes into my coffee in the morning, in my wine at night.

I’m not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I’ve always been a freak. So I’ve been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I’m one of those people.

Jazz music is a language of the emotions.