Quotes By Alanis Morissette

I was motivated by just thinking that if you had all this external success that everyone would love you and everything would be peaceful and wonderful.

The person who knows HOW will always have a job. The person who knows WHY will always be his boss.

Trauma happens in relationships, so it can only be healed in relationships. Art can't provide healing. It can be cathartic and therapeutic but a relationship is a three-part journey.

The more vulnerable and the more confused the song is, the equal and opposite effect is how I feel after having written it.

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 think quite spiritually of myself. I feel like I'm here to support the human evolution.

I remember thinking during those times that I wanted to write in a way where there are no rules.

What influenced me was Tori Amos, who was unapologetic about expressing anger through music, and Sinead O'Connor. Those two in particular were really moving for me, and very inspiring, before I wrote 'Jagged Little Pill.'

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

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.

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

My message to anyone who's afraid that they can't write music when they're happy is 'Just trust the passion.' The passion can write a lot of things.

Partnership is the way. Dictatorial win-lose is so old-school.

But I love to entertain. My vocation is to accrue all these experiences, to write about them, to get them out of my system, to not get sick, and then to share them publicly.

In my opinion, I think sarcasm and humor in a song, without turning it into a novelty song, is really charming.

When I was producing on my own, I was doing it in order to - in a very patriarchal entertainment industry, let alone planet - very much hell-bent on trying to prove to myself, if nothing else, that I could do it as a woman.

Getting married and starting a family has been a lifelong goal and one that I have persevered through different paths up to it!

Over the last couple of years, I've really worked toward balancing my life out more, having a little bit more time with friends, family and my boyfriend. There was a period of time when they were way down the list. It was all about music and touring and if everything fell by the wayside, so be it.

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.

America's a very traumatized society.

I just feel compelled to continue to be transparent. It just really levels the playing field and eradicates the shame that I have, or that one might have, about being human. So I'm going to just keep going.

My greatest environments in which I can grow, or grow up, is in personal romantic relationships with a man.

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.

As long as I can say what it is that I need to say, then I'll fit whatever I'm trying to say around a melody.

My brother says that I was writing songs about fate while he was off playing soccer. Now I tell him he's 33 and being a professional while I'm playing soccer with my friends. Ha!

Music will always be a part of my life. I love music and I don't care how many units I sell.

My parents offered me the idea of ceilinglessness. There was no limit in terms of what was possible; no messages sent to me to say that I couldn't do anything.

I grew up in a very masculine environment. So I was around a lot of men, my brothers and their friends. There was just a lot of guys around.

I find as an artist if I'm not expressed relatively consistently, I get really depressed.

I'm excited about there being more of a sisterhood these days. Back in the '90s there was a lot of hate - the women I looked up to as artists were dissing me! It's not so patriarchal these days - there's more love and a lot less hate!