Joni Quotes & Sayings

The apartment is a laboratory in which we conduct experiments, perform research on each other. We discover Henry hates it when I absentmindedly click my spoon against my teeth while reading the paper at breakfast. We agree that it is okay for me to listen to Joni Mitchell and it is okay for Henry to listen to the Shaggs as long as the other person isn't around. We figure out that Henry should do all the cooking and I should be in charge of laundry and neither of us is willing to vacuum so we hire a cleaning service. — Audrey Niffenegger

Won't you stay We'll put on the day And we'll talk in present tenses — Joni Mitchell

They'll crucify you for staying the same, and they'll crucify you for change. I'd rather be crucified for changing. — Joni Mitchell

There are things to confess that enrich the world, and things that need not be said. — Joni Mitchell

Heart and humor and humility, he said will lighten up your heavy load. — Joni Mitchell

Maybe the truly handicapped people are the ones that don't need God as much. — Joni Eareckson Tada

How can we bless at one moment and curse at another? — Joni Eareckson Tada

November 27 Share your master's joy! Matthew 25:21 Each of us has dreams. And if we trust Christ with all our hearts, nothing can disable God from surpassing our dreams with His divine reality. The suicide of her husband could not keep God from surpassing Kay Arthur's dreams. Sudden paralysis could not keep God from surpassing Joni Eareckson Tada's dreams. A horrifying ordeal in a Nazi concentration camp could not keep God from surpassing Corrie ten Boom's dreams. God surpasses our dreams when we reach past our personal plans and agendas to grab the hand of Christ and walk the path He has chosen for us. — Beth Moore

Rationally I have no hope, irrationally I believe in miracles. — Joni Mitchell

Bob [Dylan] is not authentic at all. He's a plagiarist, and his name and voice are fake. Everything about Bob is a deception. We are like night and day, he and I. — Joni Mitchell

Oh, I am a lonely painter / I live in a box of paints ... — Joni Mitchell

Some people tend to believe that I'm a strong believer, a strong Christian, but that's not true. I'm not a strong believer. I'm very weak. — Joni Eareckson Tada

The greatest good suffering can do for me is to increase my capacity for God. — Joni Eareckson Tada

With a painting, you don't have to go back and paint it again. — Joni Mitchell

I've been watching a lot of Joni Mitchell YouTube clips and I can't believe her transformation from this folk singer in Canada. — Zooey Deschanel

Whatever it was that I felt was the weak link in my previous project gave me inspiration for the next one. — Joni Mitchell

We will stand amazed to see the topside of the tapestry and how God beautifully embroidered each circumstance into a pattern for our good and His glory. — Joni Eareckson Tada

I paint my joy and I sing my sorrow. — Joni Mitchell

None of us, in our culture of comfort, know how to prepare ourselves for dying, but that's what we should do every day. Every single day, we die a thousand deaths. — Joni Eareckson Tada

I liked playing in small clubs. I really liked holding the attention of thirty or forty people. I never liked the roar of the big crowd. — Joni Mitchell

I remember my father playing me Same Situation when I was a nipper, and saying how nobody since has done melodies as well as Joni Mitchell. I concur. The thing that most affected me was just her resonance, and that is something she must have been born with. — Laura Marling

My style of songwriting is influenced by cinema. I'm a frustrated filmmaker. A fan once said to me, 'Girl, you make me see pictures in my head!' and I took that as a great compliment. That's exactly my intention. — Joni Mitchell

There is this fine line between presenting to You all of my weakness and thinking that it can't be done. In Your strength, I find my own. — Joni Eareckson Tada

That's one thing that's always, like, been a difference between, like, the performing arts, and being a painter, you know. A painter does a painting, and he paints it, and that's it, you know. He has the joy of creating it, it hangs on a wall, and somebody buys it, and maybe somebody buys it again, or maybe nobody buys it and it sits up in a loft somewhere until he dies. But he never, you know, nobody ever, nobody ever said to Van Gogh, 'Paint a Starry Night again, man!' You know? He painted it and that was it. — Joni Mitchell

There was this mountain village in Russia where my music was getting in on some German radio station. I remember this because music used to get up to Saskatchewan from Texas. Late at night after the local station closed down. — Joni Mitchell

Fibers in a variety of colors protrude out of my skin like mushrooms after a rainstorm. They cannot be forensically identified as animal, vegetable, or mineral. — Joni Mitchell

We love our lovin' ... but not like we love our freedom. — Joni Mitchell

We'll laugh and toast to nothing, and smash our empty glasses down. — Joni Mitchell

I like my freedom. I like to do my own grocery shopping. — Joni Mitchell

I could drink a case of you, darlin' ... and I would still be on my feet, yes I would still be on my feet ... — Joni Mitchell

To Canadians, everyone is equal. Joni Mitchell is interchangeable with a secretary at open-mic night. Frank Gehry is no greater than a hack pumping out McMansions on AutoCAD. John Candy is no funnier than Uncle Lou when he gets a couple of beers in him. No wonder the only Canadians anyone's ever heard of are the ones who have gotten the hell out. Anyone with talent who stayed would be flattened under an avalanche of equality. — Maria Semple

Anyone who takes the Bible seriously agrees that God hates suffering. Jesus spent most of his time relieving it. But when being healed becomes the only goal - 'I'm not letting go until I get what I want' - it's a problem. — Joni Eareckson Tada

I sing my sorrow, and I paint my joy. — Joni Mitchell

You've got to keep the child alive; you can't create without it. — Joni Mitchell

Well something's lost but something's gained in living every day. — Joni Mitchell

I certainly don't want to be an angry old artist. — Joni Mitchell

I grew up working for the minimum wage at Hardee's and knows first hand how important the minimum wage is. I support a state based minimum wage so every state can set their own minimum wage based on their cost of living. — Joni Ernst

If you truly believe in the value of life, you care about all of the weakest and most vulnerable members of society. — Joni Eareckson Tada

Take those road hazards- the potholes, ruts, detours, and all the rest- as evidence that you were on the right route. It's when you find yourself on that big, broad, easy road that you ought to worry. — Joni Eareckson Tada

But you know it's hard to tell
When you're in the spell if it's wrong or if it's real
But you're bound to lose
If you let the blues get you scared to feel — Joni Mitchell

I think I would go further into fine arts, I think, if I were to continue. — Joni Mitchell

In the U.S. Senate, in the short term we need to reduce the tax burden on hard working individuals, families, and small businesses. — Joni Ernst

There's a man who's been out sailing
In a decade full of dreams
And he takes her to a schooner
And he treats her like a queen
Bearing beads from California
With their amber stones and green
He has called her from the harbor
He has kissed her with his freedom
He has heard her off to starboard
In the breaking and the breathing
Of the water weeds
While she was busy being free — Joni Mitchell

As a kid, I was listening to Aretha Franklin, Etta James and hip-hop as well as music my parents were listening to, like Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. — Alanis Morissette

When I felt that fame, people were nosing me out, well I moved on. I used traveling names. Wigs, if necessary. — Joni Mitchell

I get the same charge from juxtaposition of colors as I do from juxtaposition of chords. — Joni Mitchell

Definitely I grew up listening to Joni Mitchell, and I think she is a wonderful writer, so she is probably part of me. — Jane Siberry

At the point where I'm trying to force something and it's not happening, and I'm getting frustrated with, say, writing a poem, I can go and pick up the brushes and start painting. At the point where the painting seems to not be going anywhere, I go and pick up the guitar. — Joni Mitchell

The times we find ourselves having to wait on others may be the perfect opportunities to train ourselves to wait on the Lord. — Joni Eareckson Tada

I love you when I forget about me. — Joni Mitchell

Bows and flows of angel hair and ice cream castles in the air and feather canyons everywhere, I've looked at clouds that way. — Joni Mitchell

I sang in art school, just to get money to smoke. — Joni Mitchell

Edith Piaf knocked my socks off when I was 8, but I didn't know what she was singing about. — Joni Mitchell

And for some reason, when I'm sad, I do listen to Leonard Cohen, I do listen to Joni Mitchell. I do find myself going to the music that's actually reflecting my mood, as opposed to sticking on Motown, which might actually bring my mood up. — Glen Hansard

If God brings our pets back to life, it wouldn't surprise me. It would be just like Him. It would be totally in keeping with His generous character ... Exorbitant. Excessive. Extravagant in grace after grace. Of all the dazzling discoveries and ecstatic pleasures heaven will hold for us, the potential of seeing Scrappy would be pure whimsy-utterly, joyfully, surprisingly superfluous ... Heaven is going to be a place that will refract and reflect in as many ways as possible the goodness and joy of our great God, who delights in lavishing love on His children. — Joni Eareckson Tada

I listen to a lot of old music, like Joni Mitchell and David Bowie. — Sophie McShera

One problem I have with faith-healing is that it tends to be focused only on the physical aspect of healing. But Jesus always backed away when people came to him only to get their physical needs met. My goodness, he was ready to have you lop off your hand! His real interest was in healing the soul. — Joni Eareckson Tada

Life becomes inspiring, not in spite of the problems and the hard hits, but because of them. — Joni Eareckson Tada

Land of snap decisions, land of short attention spans, nothing is savored long enough to really understand. — Joni Mitchell

My individual, psychological descent coincided, ironically, with my ascent into the public eye. — Joni Mitchell

I dreamed I saw the bombers riding shot gun in the sky and they were turning into butterflies above our nation. — Joni Mitchell

I wanted to paint in a folk-artist-y way. My heroes were Van Gogh, Gauguin, Matisse, and Rembrandt. I think Picasso is about as a modern as I got. But I incorporated things that they rejected as well as movements that happened later. — Joni Mitchell

All the news of home you read, more about the war and of bloody changes. — Joni Mitchell

I assume there must be some kind of genetic thrust. My two grandmothers were very different, but both of them were frustrated musicians. — Joni Mitchell

America is in a runaway-train position and dragging all the world with it. It's grotesquely mentally ill. — Joni Mitchell

I hate show business. — Joni Mitchell

I always thought the women of song don't get along, and I don't know why that is. — Joni Mitchell

I loved Debussy, Stravinsky, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, anything with romantic melodies, especially the nocturnes. Nietzsche was a hero, especially with 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra.' He gets a bad rap; he's very misunderstood. He's a maker of individuals, and he was a teacher of teachers. — Joni Mitchell

The Psalms wrap nouns and verbs around our pain better than any other book. — Joni Eareckson Tada

Buddy Holly and the early rock 'n' roll was no lighter than the way I play. It's very minimal. — Joni Mitchell

Sex sells everything and sex kills. — Joni Mitchell

You don't need to come from wealth or privilege to make a difference, — Joni Ernst

I see music as fluid architecture. — Joni Mitchell

One of the biggest obstacles I've overcome in my life was thinking I didn't deserve to be successful. Artistically I'm not as much of a heavyweight as someone like Paul Simon or Joni Mitchell, because I'm not a creator of original music, and I worried about that for years. — Bonnie Raitt

All romantics meet the same fate some day.
Drunk and cynical and boring someone in some dark cafe. — Joni Mitchell

I love Radiohead, which most people don't expect, and I listen to everything from Stevie Wonder to Steely Dan, Carole King, The Beach Boys, The Kinks, Beyonce Knowles, Vampire Weekend, The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Burt Bacharach, and Paul Simon. — Eliza Doolittle

The only thing I have to give to make you smile, to win you with, are all the mornings still to live. — Joni Mitchell

You know that it never has been easy
Whether you do or do not resign
Whether you travel the breadth of the extremities
Or stick to some straighter line. — Joni Mitchell

Everything comes and goes; pleasure moves on too early and trouble leaves too slow — Joni Mitchell

I did a song, "Court and Spark," for a Joni Mitchell tribute album that's yet to see the light of day. So she's someone I'd like to do something with, sure. I worked with the great guitar player Bill Frisell on Phantom Moon - that was fun. I'm such a fan; he's amazing. — Duncan Sheik

On first listening, Joni Mitchell's 'Court And Spark,' the first truly great pop album of 1974, sounds surprisingly light; by the third or fourth listening, it reveals its underlying tensions. — Jon Landau

I am as constant as a northern star — Joni Mitchell

Americans are pushy, obnoxious, neurotic, crass - anything and everything - the full catastrophe as our friend Zorba might say. Canadians are none of that. The way you might fear a cow sitting down in the middle of the street during rush hour, that's how I fear Canadians. To Canadians, everyone is equal. Joni Mitchell is interchangeable with a secretary at open-mic night. Frank Gehry is no greater than a hack pumping out McMansions on AutoCAD. John Candy is no funnier than Uncle Lou when he gets a couple of beers in him. No wonder the only Canadians anyone's ever heard of are the ones who have gotten the hell out. Anyone with talent who stayed would be flattened under an avalanche of equality. The thing Canadians don't understand is that some people are extraordinary and should be treated as such. — Maria Semple

I create by feeling rather than by intellectualizing. — Joni Mitchell

Because Elvis gave 'em cars, you think I'm cheap. — Joni Mitchell

What I do is unusual: chordal movements that have never been used before, changing keys and modalities mid-song. — Joni Mitchell

Like all good citizens, the elderly and people with disabilities want to eradicate waste and fraud from government, but helping people with special needs meet their basic needs doesn't fit this description. — Joni Eareckson Tada

As a soldier and combat veteran, I believe American military forces should only be used in the defense and furtherance of our nation's vital interests. — Joni Ernst

I have lost my credibility as a hit maker because of these side excursions into other branches of music by not being consistent. Consistency seems to be all important. — Joni Mitchell

Sorrow is so easy to express and yet so hard to tell. — Joni Mitchell

We need to preserve programs like Social Security and Medicare for our seniors of today and tomorrow. But we need to strengthen both Social Security and Medicare to make sure these programs are still available for future generations. — Joni Ernst

I had made all these rules for myself: I'm not writing social commentary, I'm not writing love songs. — Joni Mitchell

I try not to steal from myself, but the modalities create similarities. — Joni Mitchell

I enjoy dating married men because they don't want anything kinky, like breakfast. — Joni Rodgers

I've had mentors who were kind of the troubadour singer-songwriters, like Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and Neil Young, and that's just what I've always liked - people who would talk real honestly about their lives and their circumstance. — Jewel

I see bodies as individual things. — Joni Mitchell

Fear is like the wilderland - Stepping stones or sinking sand — Joni Mitchell

He's swept with the broom of contempt and the rooms have an empty ring. — Joni Mitchell

Tada references the accusation in Jeremiah that the people have forsaken God as Living Water by remembering a hiking trip from her younger days. Reaching a clear stream at the end of her trip, she emptied her canteen of the warm, metallic-tasting water and filled up on fresh water. — Joni Eareckson Tada

Writing is capturing life, recording the human condition, and trying to glean meaning from it. — Joni M. Fisher