To make big steps, you've got to take action yourself and not listen to other people.

To me, success was not having to have a boss and not having a day job. I've been living my own version of success since the early '90s when I first got signed. I haven't had a job since then.

When I did have a little bit of commercial success, it really didn't suit my temperament at all. I'm a terrible public person.

You can learn so much just by doing, not by listening to anybody.

I still have all the faith and love for my music and yet I'm still playing places for kids.

I don't have anything to prove anymore. I don't have a record deal, no one has any expectations, I'm in a position of freedom. I don't need anyone's approval.

I never felt happy with the idea that part of what I do is to be an object to be looked at. I thought of my public persona as an entity separate to myself.

I still have a lot of those depressive thoughts, but now I have the foresight to tell myself, 'Don't think like that,' and things seem better.

Writing helps me process things that are happening to me.

I'm a damaged person, but I have hope and a will to not give up.

I've been embarrassing myself publicly for over 20 years. Why should I stop now?

I am not dead inside. I still care about right and wrong.

You find yourself approaching middle age, playing another scuzzy rock club.

I love 'Crazy Horse,' and Neil Young is one of my favorite guitar players.

I finished 'Beautiful Creature,' and I felt somewhat unfulfilled. I felt like this other side of me needed to be released. Some of the songs I left off the album weren't intense enough to be what I wanted. They weren't hard enough.

I have many moods, and there is no objective reality. And I kind of live by that.

All I'm trying to do is to keep going and keep evolving.

I love playing in front of people. I feel powerful, 'cause I don't have to really say anything - I'm just singing.

I like people wanting to know about me.

When I start writing, I'll have a vague concept or I'll just have a title, and the song just goes on its own direction. Usually it goes in many directions within each song. They get really convoluted sometimes.

My songs are about not knowing who to be and not knowing how to act.

For a long time, music was hope. Now it seems music isn't enough to make me happy. It used to be that's all I needed to keep going. Now I need other things to take up the other parts of my life.

Human relations, I mess them up, and they let me down.

I want to paint. That is probably going to sound so pretentious coming from someone who's been a musician.

The whole thing about rock music, pop music, is it's really for kids.

From the beginning, I've always had a knack for catchy melodies. But I went through a period when I was trying to be rock n' roll and have a rock n' roll attitude. I was fighting my nature by trying to play really hard and sing really hard. But at a certain point, I realized that I loved syrupy pop music with tons of harmony.

I'm kind of an emotional exhibitionist.

I feel some kind of duty to be really, really honest as a writer. The same is true of my songwriting.

You think you know who you are, and then other people have these other ideas.

When I first started making music, I didn't really know what I was doing. I just wanted to write songs. I didn't have a concept. I didn't think it through. I was just flailing around doing what comes naturally. It took me a really long time to step back and deal with what I was doing with any kind of perspective or self-awareness.

At heart I am a librarian, a bird-watcher, a transcendentalist, a gardener, a spinster, a monk.

I make music and I can't stop. It's a compulsion and an obsession and a curse.

I don't believe songs that try to say everything in a simple slogan.

I get a little sick of myself as a solo artist. I get a little bit bored.

Songwriting is like going to church. I'm connecting to something, and it's rewarding in really important ways. I don't need to share it with anyone to feel good about it.

What does it mean to a person whose identity is very wrapped up in the music she makes, if her worth is measured by how many records she sells?

I could make a whole album with no one else involved at all. It would be a total, unadulterated expression of myself. Because whenever you have others playing on a project, their influence becomes a part of it.

Doing interviews can sometimes mess up my head. It makes me feel dirty. It's frustrating how the press recycles a quote to death.

Keanu Reeves is, like, the worst actor I've ever seen. I can't believe he's a movie star.

If you do things when you're burned out, it'll make you bitter.

My growth as an artist and a person has been so slow and gradual, it's hard to make a story out of it.

Everything's been a struggle for me.

I was just dying to get out of my twenties.

I'm just trying to get rid of all the mystery surrounding me and let people see what I'm thinking. So they can understand me and stop assuming things about me.

It may seem strange, but the most grateful I've ever felt was when I was held up at gunpoint. After I handed over my wallet and the mugger ran off into the woods, I thought, 'Thank you for not shooting me.' I was overwhelmingly glad to be alive and unharmed.

I'm really conflicted about my role as a front-person. I hate the attention.

Every song brings back memories, like I remember where I wrote all these songs. 'Universal Heartbeat' was my apartment in New York City. 'My Sister' was at my apartment in Boston. I remember places and I remember what I was thinking when I wrote it.

People don't analyze Britney Spears' lyrics 'cause they're so obvious, you know? And her image is so kind of blah and mainstream that who really wants to read between the lines, because it's all so out there in front of you and boring and white bread.

My guitar playing has not developed as much as I think it could because I never practice. I only play when I'm writing or recording or when I'm playing on tour. When I'm sitting around at home, I never play.

I don't think I'm romantic at all. I have a lot of faith in the right thing happening. I don't really hope for a lot of particulars, I just have faith that the right thing will happen most of the time.