Juliana Hatfield Quotations

Puerto Rico has a stray dog problem. Tens of thousands of homeless canines - hundreds of thousands, by some estimates - live and die on the streets and beaches all over this Caribbean island of almost four million people.

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

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.

If you want to achieve things in life, you've just got to do them, and if you're talented and smart, you'll succeed.

Puerto Ricans who find they can no longer afford to keep their pets often choose to drop their dogs, sometimes even whole litters of puppies, at a beach - sometimes under cover of night, in secret - rather than surrender the animal to a city or state-run shelter where the animals will face grim conditions and almost certain death by euthanasia.

The first kiss between two people is something really good in life.

In this world, where everything happens so fast, it's hard to sit back, take the time and contemplate.

I've always been a loner, and I've spent most of my life as a single person.

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.

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

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.

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

I don't really care about money. I find money boring and accounting boring, so I'm probably not going to ever make a lot of money.

I'm totally committed to the cause of individuality. That's the only thing I stand by: independence.

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.

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

It makes me feel good to have some comforting effect on someone that needs comfort.

As long as there are religions, there are going to be people who are hiding their rottenness behind the veil of religion.

Baseball is more than a game. It's like life played out on a field.

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

The most rabidly religious people are the most rabidly evil.

Sometimes I feel like a human pin cushion. Every painful emotion hits me with ridiculously exaggerated force. And the anxiety feels like hands inside of me, squeezing my guts really hard.

I don't feel bad or scared about getting older in terms of my looks or anything like that. I'm not afraid of my face changing. I enjoy seeing my face change. I think it's really interesting. I wouldn't want to have same face for my whole life. It would be boring to look at the same face in the mirror for 80 years.

I don't buy a lot when I travel, but when I do, I like to send gifts from wherever I am. It's fun to find the local post office.

Motivation is just this potion to create stuff, a compulsion to express the truth of my own experiences in this life.

A heart that hurts is a heart that works.

My dad claims that he was able to trace us back to the West Virginia Hatfields. When I look at the old pictures, the patriarchs have kind of a physical likeness to some of the men on the father's side of my family. I want it to be true.

I have been a bridesmaid. Fortunately, the outfits were pretty tame. They were cream and black, but I still wouldn't wear them out in public, though.

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.

Harmonies come really naturally to me. I don't have to labor too hard over them. I'll sing a lead vocal, and then I will immediately have all of these other ideas for vocal harmonies. I think that some of the most fun parts of recording, for me, are the vocal harmonies.

It costs a lot of money to make an album in a studio in New York with a producer and musicians. I have to pay a publicist every month. I have to pay for mastering, production, the manufacturing of the discs. Then, to promote an album properly, you have to spend a lot of money.

I think everyone's pretty much the same underneath. The collective unconscious is a real thing. There's only a few emotions, and we all have them. There's, like, seven emotions. So personal is universal. Everyone experiences confusion, joy and pain, just in different forms.

Playing a show is a monumental hassle. You've got to schlep all your heavy equipment into the van, then you've got to drive for five hours, then you have to schlep all the heavy equipment out of the van, onto the stage, set it up, do the sound check, hang around for three hours, then play the show, which is incredibly draining.

People need meanings to everything. People want you to intellectualize every choice you make.

People in L.A. don't have to brace themselves against the cold; they slack off permanently, and their brains turn to mush.

Some of the songs are so crazy, the words are so crazy... it's hard to believe I was so crazy.

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.

You can feel that in the music, just the unease and the distrust of the things that satisfy people, and make people feel good.

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.

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

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?

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

I used to be an over-packer! It took me a while to be smart about what I brought with me. I used to tour with a huge bag full of clothes and another one full of shoes because I wanted to have choices. And I ended up wearing the same pair of shoes all the time!

People think that my personality can be reduced to what?s in the songs on Hey Babe and it?s not true. But people don?t realize that.

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.

I wanted to be a writer since I was a little girl - long before I was a musician and a songwriter.

In looking back at the relationship, I can see that there are all these things happening, that I didn't want to admit or acknowledge, and I think that stuff got into the music,

If I have to work in McDonalds, fine - I had a really great run and made a living at music for 20 years, and how many other people can say that?

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

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

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

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

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

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

My music - that's the one area I won't let myself be pushed around. But in other parts of my life, I'm a confused mess.

My whole life was writing, recording and touring over and over again. At some point I realised I wasn't enjoying myself any more.

People are complex. I'm just showing my complexity.

I'm kind of an emotional exhibitionist.

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

Popular culture is filled with girls.

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

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

People in L.A. don't have to brace themselves against the cold; they slack off permanently, and their brains turn to mush.

I listen to NPR and baseball games when I'm in my car. I mean, exclusively NPR and baseball games, and that's it, as far as the radio.

Everything's been a struggle for me.

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

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

I think the reason I've been able to keep making music is because I'm not married, I don't have kids.

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

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

I was just dying to get out of my twenties.

Music is so hard. It's a struggle to get people to care. It's hard to make an impact in today's world because people aren't buying records anymore.

I've finally learned to love my voice for its uniqueness.

If life is a performance, and I am not an actor, am I supposed to lie down and die?

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.

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'm pretty good with languages. I know a bit of French and actually want to live in France some day so that I can get fluent. I think it'd be tragic to go through life only knowing one language.

I'm not a very good advice-giver.

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

Writing helps me process things that are happening to me.

My first guitar was a Gibson Challenger.

Once I picked up an electric guitar, I lost interest in piano, and I just wanted to rock. I studied piano for so long, I got burned out on it.

I've always been in this sort of perpetual state of existential longing. I feel like something's missing.

I'm able to see humor in a lot of things.

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

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

What happens when your dream comes true - when the spotlight is on and then it moves away?

I've seen quite a bit of the world, but I really like Sweden and feel like I could live there some day.

People make such a big deal about how people in bands look, especially if you're a girl.

Although I'm a huge fan of Ben Kweller, I don't think I'd cover one of his songs, simply because there's just so much of my own stuff I wanna do.

I like visiting LA, but I wouldn't want to live there.

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.

The way I see it, all the popular singers are strippers.

I tend to fall for the archetypal, talented, charismatic rock boy.

I find myself a fascinating subject.

I never really expected to win the hearts of the masses.

David Ortiz is a genius. He's incredible to watch. Over and over, he hits home runs that are simply transcendent.

I'd just like to inspire people to be themselves and do what they want and not conform to the rigid guidelines of the music or entertainment business.

I can't believe I got a major-label record deal. My music was quirky, and my voice was so odd and high and girlish, it was like a weird novelty act.

How do you get up in the morning? Another wasted life it's so boring The system never failed you You failed yourself and all of your friends Now your heart is failing too A total system failure they pronounce you