Natalie Merchant Quotes

My mother was a single working mother; she started having children very young. There was a tension inside her about who she wanted to be and what she wanted to do and how she couldn’t achieve the things she wanted to.

I can’t remove the autobiographical slant from the things I write. You always bring yourself into what you’re writing.

I would say I’d rather dig a ditch, you know, do hard, manual labor than write lyrics.

Have I been wrong? Have I been wise to shut my eyes?

TV holds a close second to cars for destroying our society. It’s a failed experiment.

The research phase was really fascinating – I’m not a closeted nerd, I’m an out-of-the-closet nerd.

I wish I had appreciated my youth – I should have worn tighter clothing when I could have!

I don’t think women’s prisons are environments for dance routines, and I don’t think mass murder is humorous.

For your kindness, I’m in debt to you. For your selflessness, my admiration.

Poetry comes alive to me through recitation.

It’s funny, I remember doing the Johnny Carson show, and, uh, I couldn’t afford my rent.

Be true to yourself, and, um, don’t worry about some large companies’ quarterly profit index.

I think of myself as a musician and not a celebrity. Celebrity status is something you have to deliberately pursue – I couldn’t imagine myself seeking that.

I think I don’t invest so much time in thinking about people’s sexuality. I just take people as individuals.

Literature gives us a window into other people’s experiences in other places, in other times, so I thought it would be really interesting to investigate how different people had written about motherhood, and childhood.

I was shy. Bookish. The kind of 13-year-old girl who, instead of having a boyfriend, would have a crush on a dead, 19th-century author!

I’ve had a large gay following for many years and have been quite aware of that.

I think I have a really diverse audience. I’ve had people from all sorts of sexual persuasions.

I’m going to be shaking my booty when I’m 55.

It’s really wonderful to be able to be nobody, and then have a moment when I can be somebody, and then go right back to being nobody again.