Alanis Morissette

But once I acclimated and really used fame for what it was offering me as a tool to serve my life purpose of inspiring and contributing, then it started to get fun again.

I try to keep a low profile in general. Not with my art, but just as a person.

I’ll keep evolving and put that into my songs.

I started playing piano when I was 6. And I knew that wanted to be involved in that form of expression, whether it was through music, or acting, or dancing, or painting, or writing.

At one point, I was just perceived as only being angry, but now I’m being perceived as angry, peaceful, and spiritual.

Then I realized that secrecy is actually to the detriment of my own peace of mind and self, and that I could still sustain my belief in privacy and be authentic and transparent at the same time. It was a pretty revelatory moment, and there’s been a liberating force that’s come from it.

If I don’t learn something new every day, it’s a day lost

A Jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges.

Jazz is music made by and for people who have chosen to feel good in spite of conditions.

What we hear is the quality of our listening.

I’m on some singer’s record date for a demo and I get a note to call Miles Davis. Of course, I didn’t believe it, but I wasn’t going to take a chance by not calling, and it was Miles. He said, ‘I’ve got a session in an hour over at Columbia, can you make it’

Music is born out of the inner sounds within a soul.

Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.

[In 1972] At the moment, we’re getting the same thrill from seeing the Eagles, Jackson Browne, Jo Jo Gunne, and Judee Sill happen… It’s as hard to do it with Jackson Browne as it was to do it with Joni five years ago.

It’s not that you want to sing, it’s that you have to sing.

You gotta love livin’, baby, ’cause dyin’ is a pain in the ass.

The true beauty of music is that it connects people.

I like the interplay in the music.

Everyone is working who should be.

I went through a struggle, and I really needed to get myself together and connect with my purpose, which is music.

One very important thing I learned from Monk was his complete dedication to music. That was his reason for being alive. Nothing else mattered except music, really.