Joni Mitchell quotes - page 6

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)
Because I'm so busy and because I think of myself as a painter, I desperately guard the time that I have to paint. And sometimes I'm irresponsible to my career in order to paint. Because painting is obsessive. I forget to eat. I forget to sleep. View quote
Joni Mitchell
I had made all these rules for myself: I'm not writing social commentary, I'm not writing love songs. View quote
Joni Mitchell
You could write a song about some kind of emotional problem you are having, but it would not be a good song, in my eyes, until it went through a period of sensitivity to a moment of clarity. Without that moment of clarity to contribute to the song, it's just complaining. View quote
Joni Mitchell
People used to say nobody can sing my songs but me, they're too personal. View quote
Joni Mitchell
No one likes to have less than they had before. That's the nature of the human animal. View quote
Joni Mitchell
The coming of the kids hasn't come out in my art yet. View quote
Joni Mitchell
Back then, I didn't have a big organization around me. I was just a kid with a guitar, traveling around. My responsibility basically was to the art, and I had extra time on my hands. There is no extra time now. There isn't enough time. View quote
Joni Mitchell
If I'm censoring for anyone, it's for my parents. They are very old-fashioned and moral people. They still don't understand me that well. View quote
Joni Mitchell
I couldn't see passion as a bad thing. View quote
Joni Mitchell
America is in a runaway-train position and dragging all the world with it. It's grotesquely mentally ill. (Joni Mitchell)
I used to be monastic, almost. Now I'm like a Tibetan that has discovered hamburgers and television. I'm catching up on Americana. View quote
Joni Mitchell
With a painting, you don't have to go back and paint it again. View quote
Joni Mitchell
I know my generation - a lot of them, they're getting old now, and they want to think back fondly, they want to kid themselves. A lot of them think, 'Yeah, we were the best.' That's the kiss of death. That's non-growth. And also that's very bad for the world. View quote
Joni Mitchell
In terms of fiction, I'd rather go out and have a good time than read a book about someone having a good or bad time. View quote
Joni Mitchell
I certainly don't want to be an angry old artist. View quote
Joni Mitchell
...I liked playing the coffeehouses, where I could step off the stage and go sit in the audience and be comfortable, or where there wasn't a barrier between me and my audience in the clubs. The big stage had no appeal for me; it was too great a distance between me and the audience, and I never really liked it. I didn't have a lot of fame in the beginning, and that's probably good because it made it more enjoyable. View quote
Joni Mitchell
That's the music that I play at home all the time, Joni Mitchell. Court and Spark I love because I'd always hoped that she'd work with a band. But the main thing with Joni is that she's able to look at something that's happened to her, draw back and crystallize the whole situation, then write about it. She brings tears to my eyes, what more can I say? It's bloody eerie. I can relate so much to what she says. "Now old friends are acting strange/They shake their heads/They say I've changed". View quote
Joni Mitchell