Ani Difranco Quotes

One of my rules is: Never TRY to do anything. Just do it.

Every time I say something they find hard to hear, they chalk it up to my anger, and never to their own fear.

We are wise women, we are giggling girls.

We both carry a smile to show when we're pleased, we both carry a switchblade in our sleeves.

spring is super in the supermarkets and the strawberries prance and glow never mind that they're all kinda tart and tasteless as strawberries go meanwhile wild things are not for sale anymore than they are for show so i'll be outside, in love with the kind of beauty it takes more than eyes to know

We are taught to view pain as an enemy, not a teacher.

But pain is the right hand of growth and transformation. Pain is in the history of all human wisdom.

I know men are delicate origami creatures who need women to unfold them, hold them when they cry. But I am tired of being your savior and I am tired of telling you why.

I walk like I'm on a mission 'cause that's the way I groove.

I got more and more to do and less and less to prove.

We are wise, wise women. We are giggling girls.

Goldfish have no memory, I guess their lives are much like mine.

And the little plastic castle is a surprise everytime.

I used to be a superhero; no one could touch me, not even myself. You are like a phone booth I somehow stumbled into, and now look at me - I am just like everybody else.

What I like about being independent [in the music industry] is that anybody who does play the album on the radio and anybody who does choose to write in the media does so because they want to, because they like it or because they find something interesting there, not because they have to.

They say that the truth will set you free But then again, so will a lie.

.. It depends if you're trying to get to the promised land Or if you're just trying to get by.

I sincerely believe patriarchy to be at the root of all of our social diseases and feminism, it's antidote, to be a prerequisite to peace on earth. feminism provides an alternative way of thinking and structuring things that focuses on and prioritizes relationships and de-emphasizes hierarchy, separation and domination.

The minute my child was born, I was reborn as a feminist.

It's so incredible what women can do... birthing naturally, as most women do around the globe, is a superhuman act. You leave behind the comforts of being human and plunge back into being an animal.

The windows of my soul are made of one-way glass, don't bother looking into my eyes if there's something you want to know, just ask

If you don't ask the right question, every answer seems wrong -

[The 'corporate takeover of people's lives'] also accounts for a lot of homogenization of culture. There are fast food restaurants everywhere. Every place tastes the same.

I am writing graffiti on your body. I am drawing the story of how hard we tried.

Up up up up up up points the spire of the steeple but god's work isn't done by god it's done by people

If more people were screamin', I could relax.

Some people wear their smile like a disguise.

Those people who smile a lot, watch their eyes. I know 'cause I'm like that a lot. You think everything's ok, and it is . . . 'till it's not.

When I was four years old they tried to test my IQ, they showed me this picture of three oranges and a pear. They asked me which one is different and does not belong; they taught me different was wrong.

I would like to perfect the art of being studiously aloof

All the decent people, male and female, are feminists.

The only people who are not feminists are those who believe that women are inherently inferior or undeserving of the respect and opportunity afforded men. Either you are a feminist or you are a misogynist. There is no box marked "other."

In any marginalized community, whether people identify themselves or not affects us all.

Self-Preservation is a full-time occupation.

Freedom and democracy, That's the word from Washington every day.

Put America to sleep with warm milk and clichés, And people are expendable along the way.

I love all those great 'f' words - feminism, folk music.

I'm recording our history now on the bedroom wall, and when we leave the landlord will come and paint over it all.

Birth is the epicenter of women's power

I am getting nowhere with you and I can't let you go and I cant get through.

If a politician is running in your local community who's pro-choice, who's feminist in their thinking, get behind them. Send them some money! If you have no money but have time, lick stamps!

I am not a pretty girl. I don't want to be a pretty girl. No, I want to be more than a pretty girl.

God help you if you are a phoenix and you dare to rise up from the ash a thousand eyes will smolder with jealousy while you are just flying past

We have a complete void of progressive politics in this country right now.

The will of the people goes ignored and unrealized. I'm searching for the people that can enter the political system, a strong third party. We need to consolidate.

When you grow up surrounded by willful ignorance, you have to believe that mercy has it's own country and that it's round and borderless.

My mother was a feminist, and she gave me some tools of self-possession and self-empowerment, but now that I have lived here for forty-three years, it's, like, whoa, there is just so much more to do, other than become myself. I'm still talking about it. I still drop the P-word, "patriarchy," on unsuspecting people in everyday conversations.

Actually I don't know if honesty is a strength or some kind of weakness.

We have to really be intentional right now about holding the media accountable, and taking back the discourse and terms of discussion. It's been hijacked.

Life is a sleazy stranger, who looks vaguely familiar;

flirting with a bimbo named disaster at the end of the bar.

The stronger I am in my personal life, the more energy I have to look outward, to address my society.

Love isn't over when the sheets are stained.

I think the gay community should get smart and drop the word marriage.

Do you really need to change every right-wing Christian to make sure you get your equal rights? Eyes on the prize, we should be sticking to getting equal rights.

The bathroom mirror has not budged, the woman who lives there can tell the truth from the stuff they say and looks me in the eye- says do you prefer the easy way? No? Well ok then, dont cry.

And I was shocked, To see the mistakes of each generation, Will just fade like a radio station, If you drive out of range...

My writing just kind of exists out there in the air-it's all sort of intended as spoken, or sung, word. So, to commit them to the page...that way was kind of intimidating to me, yet intriguing, to try to reflect the rhythms and connotations and emotions that you can deliver, speaking-wise, on a page.

And thoughts of no other man but you could possibly get through the picket lines to enter into my mind.

Life is a B Movie: it's stupid and it's strange, it's a directionless story, the dialogue is lame, but in the 'he said she said' sometimes there's some poetry, if you turn your back long enough and let it happen naturally.

I always feel I have to take a stand, And there's always someone on hand To hate me for standing there. I always feel I have to open my mouth, And every time I do, I offend someone, somewhere.