Alanis Morissette

At some point, I would like to write a book and other things, but I work best when there is some sort of deadline in my own mind, but not when fifty people or fifty million people are breathing down the back of my neck.

And if I had a preference, it would be to be able to not be in the studio until 4 in the morning.

I see the whole concept of Generation X implies that everyone has lost hope.

To me the biggest irony of this lifetime that I’m living is that for someone who thrives in the public eye in the creative ways that I do, I actually don’t enjoy being in the public eye.

If I could sell 500 million records every time, it would be great. But I’ve also had the luxury experience of having it when I was a teenager, in a very kind of model version of it.

Canada has a passive-aggressive culture, with a lot of sarcasm and righteousness. That went with my weird messianic complex. The ego is a fascinating monster. I was taught from a young age that I had to serve, so that turned into me thinking I had to save the planet.

The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is.

Life is managed; it is not cured.

Well, I’m not sure what pop psychology is, but I don’t like it.

Instinct is probably the essence of past experience and knowledge stored up for later use. There are many, you know, who think that this life journey through the world is not the first one we have made. Haven’t you ever come across children who knew things that it was impossible for them to have learned? Have you ever gone to a place for the first time and felt sure that you had been there before? That’s one of the reasons I do not travel much.

Understanding is simple. Knowing is complicated.

I am become death, shatterer of worlds.

The difference between you and the person you envy, is that you settle for less.

There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.

Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.

You get what you ask for in this life. If you ask for nothing, you get nothing.

Love is simple: It is waking up knowing you exist in a mind outside of your own. It is having one heart that carries two beats. It is you and me spoken in terms of us and we.

In ceremonies of the horsemen, even the pawn must hold a grudge.

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.

This above all: to thine own self be true.

Trees are among the most useful things grown.