Best Joanna Newsom Quotes & Sayings

I don't think I'm abnormal and I think that lets people down. — Joanna Newsom

If I ever met Dolly Parton for sure, I would just not be able to say anything. I love her. — Joanna Newsom

I want to make music that somehow connects to the things that I love in America music. — Joanna Newsom

People are often afraid for me. They think that I am going to break. I can make it through a set. — Joanna Newsom

What a woman does is open doors. And it is not a question of locking or unlocking. — Joanna Newsom

I had known that people would probably have strange reactions to my voice, because I have kind of an unwieldy, difficult voice, but I never thought that anybody would have a problem with the harp. I just assumed ... C'mon, it's a beautiful instrument. — Joanna Newsom

Well, yeah, I wanted to resist the urge to thicken everything up with instrumentation, because I just felt like I was interested in seeing how the songs did on their own. — Joanna Newsom

I am consciously trying not to make it sound Celtic or African. — Joanna Newsom

I wasn't interested in writing music that wasn't beautiful for me to listen to. — Joanna Newsom

The moment of your greatest joy sustains:
Not axe nor hammer
Tumor, tremor
Can take it away, and it remains
It remains — Joanna Newsom

We are blessed and sustained by what is not said — Joanna Newsom

I wasn't born of a whistle or milked from a thistle at twilight
No I was all horns and thorns sprung out fully formed, knock-kneed and upright. — Joanna Newsom

It's valid that the Strokes and the Pleased have been influenced by some of the same bands. But it's invalid in the sense that we listen to the Strokes and try to sounds like them. I think that they are a good band. — Joanna Newsom

Never get so attached to a poem that you forget truth that lacks lyricism. — Joanna Newsom

I'm a big Johnny Cash girl. And I love singers like Laura Marling and Joanna Newsom. — Imogen Poots

It broke my heart when I learned the moon had been passing the sun's light off as its own. — Joanna Newsom

I give away CDs at shows if someone wants a CD but doesn't have any money. I wouldn't want to do that forever. — Joanna Newsom

Lyrics are very different. There is a clear line between that and a poem. Something that has been a source of great excitement and delight for me is this idea that I get to rhyme. — Joanna Newsom

In the sinking sand,
where we've come to rest,
have I had a hand in your loneliness? — Joanna Newsom

I never thought people would be mortally offended by the sounds I was making. — Joanna Newsom

I wanted to write songs which I think is a different thing. I wanted to write music that is informed by folk music. The chord progressions are obvious references. — Joanna Newsom

I don't look at people's expressions, because I still get nervous when I play, especially when I first put the harp up there. I just try to tune - it takes me a half-hour to tune, and I get nervous if I look at anybody when I do it. — Joanna Newsom

The way that words fit together is always interesting to me. I love words. — Joanna Newsom

We deserve to know light. And grow evermore lighter and lighter. — Joanna Newsom

I started playing harp about fourteen years ago. — Joanna Newsom

In high school, we studied a lot of poetical forms. I was really interested in the math that was involved and the strange live break ups. That gave me a great amount of respect for a rhymed stanza. — Joanna Newsom

I have a voice that's obviously untrained - and I think untrainable - so I kind of secreted it away for a long time. Actually, I would write songs with lyrics when I was younger, but I would just sing in my head. — Joanna Newsom

Maybe a good goal would be to just at least always try to create something good. Like something that is connected to love in some way. Like the [musical] equivalent of ... you can make a decision to be kind. You can make a decision to greet people kindly and make jokes with people and connect. — Joanna Newsom

The fire breather is beneath the clover, and beneath his breathing there is cold clay forever — Joanna Newsom

Among the responsibilities of any writer is that, no matter what else, they know what they mean. So, even if no one else knows what you're talking about, you do. The listener can sense that, even if they don't get the literal meaning. The faith that they place in the clues and the connections and the secrets of the lyrics is of the utmost importance. — Joanna Newsom