Alanis Morissette
In LA, where I live, it's all about perfectionism. Beauty is now defined by your bones sticking out of your decolletage. For that to be the standard is really perilous for women.
I'm a liability to them - I'm a woman, I'm empowered, I'm an artist. I've had executives who can't come to my shows they're so scared of me. I've been a thorn in many people's sides just by existing.
I'm really clear about what my life mission is now. There's no more depression or lethargy, and I feel like I've returned to the athlete I once was. I'm integrating all the parts of me - jock, musician, writer, poet, philosopher - and becoming stronger as a result.
I didn't have high self-esteem when I was a teen-ager, as I think most teen-agers don't.
The more vulnerable and the more confused the song is, the equal and opposite effect is how I feel after having written it.
If I could sell 500 million records every time, it would be great. But I've also had the luxury experience of having it when I was a teenager, in a very kind of model version of 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.
Unless I really loved it and felt really passionate about it, I would just kind of abort the song and start a new one.
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 started playing piano when I was 6. And I knew that wanted to be involved in that form of expression, whether it was through music, or acting, or dancing, or painting, or writing.
I'll be writing songs till I die. There's just no question.
The whole celebrity thing is not something I'm overly interested in. I don't pop up at parties. It's just not my thing.
Music will always be a part of my life. I love music and I don't care how many units I sell.
I think some people think I'm a smarty-pants. Some people think I'm intense, some people think I'm super-esoteric and nuts.
I didn't want to be one of those women who wake up at 63 years old and realize they've missed the window of opportunity for marriage and children.
America's a very traumatized society.
Beauty is now defined by your bones sticking out of your decolletage. For that to be the standard is really perilous for women.
Europe seems a little softer, but in America it's harsh. In L.A., where I live, it's all about perfectionism.
I was taught from a young age that I had to serve, so that turned into me thinking I had to save the planet.
I get angry at myself for staying in relationships way too long.
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!
The people that were invested in me staying the same way after a decade will most likely by default have to be disappointed.
My three addictions of choice are food, love and work.
My own approach has always been to push intense emotions down and attempt to deal with them later.
I think there is no better way to invite a human being to view their body differently than by inviting them to be an athlete, by revering one's body as an instrument rather than just an ornament.
Getting married and starting a family has been a lifelong goal and one that I have persevered through different paths up to it!
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!
I can't not write, if I don't then I get really depressed.
I'll be writing records until I'm dead, whether people like it or not!
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 could get away with not taking care of myself as a bachelorette but as a mom I can't.
I make up new lyrics to well-known lullabies. Mostly because I don't actually know a lot of the lyrics.
I think it's irresponsible when celebrities imply they're doing it all themselves. My son has aunties and uncles around all the time, and my husband is my hero. He's really full-on. I couldn't do it any other way.
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.
There's a continuity between what I care about in any form: I care about it in my music, in article-writing, in how I dress, in how I live, in my relationships, in how I navigate paparazzi, how I decorate my home. There's such a continuity between everything that I don't really care what form it shows up in.
It's not just the 'Grammys' that I've pulled out of. I also pulled out of the English awards as well. The reason that I wanted to pull out was because I believe very much that the music industry as a whole is mainly concerned with material success.
I did commit to myself that I would not jump back into being the workaholic that I can be before I gave myself an honest opportunity to create the marriage of my dreams and to create the beginning of the family of my dreams, and that took a hot second.
I find as an artist if I'm not expressed relatively consistently, I get really depressed.
I need to be performing. I need to be acting. I need to be designing a condo and ripping down walls and buying new plates and looking at fashion magazines. There always has to be some movement in the artistic department for me to not get really, really low.
I've been really enjoying writing articles and writing music and music for movies.
I really do see that anywhere I am, whether it's doing interviews a hundred in a row, that every situation I'm in, I'm at choice in the matter.
I know that I'm deeply, spiritually, profoundly philosophical and I also know that I'm about the flakiest person you're gonna meet.
I think fame became exciting for me in the late '90s because I could actually use it as a means to an end. I could actually have it help me serve my vocationfulness.
There was a period of time during the 'Jagged Little Pill' era where I don't think I laughed for about two years. It was a survival mode, you know. It was an intense, constant, chronic over-stimulation and invasion of energetic and physical literal space.
We live, in North America in general, if I'm given the indulgence of selling us down the river, in a culture of fear of this connective sense of spirit.
I am a firm believer that one way to become enlightened is to be so relaxed, as relaxed as you possibly can be.
Only traumatised people want to be famous.
I want to poke holes in the erroneous beliefs about what fame provides. It won't raise your self-esteem, it won't create profound connection, it's not going to heal your childhood traumas, it's only going to amplify them. You're going to be subject to a lot of criticism and praise, both of which are violent in their own ways.
There were websites erected to figure out how to kill Alanis. I just do not need to see this; it's not good for anybody.