Top 325 Quotes & Sayings by Ani DiFranco - Page 3

When you sit right down in the middle of yourself you're gonna wanna have a comfortable chair.

We negotiate with chaos for some sense of satisfaction.

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.

I can't wait to get back to New York City where at least when I walk down the streat, no one ever hesitates to tell me exactly what they think of me.

Love was always the goal, and my point every step of the way was that nothing is wrong with love, no matter what flavor it comes in.

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.

A good brain ain't diddley, if you don't have the facts.

Love sets fire to your schedule, And then calls an end to time.

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.

[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.

Goldfish have no memory, I guess their lives are much like mine. And the little plastic castle is a surprise everytime.

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.

and half of learning to play is learning what not to play and she's learning the spaces she leaves have their own things to say and she's trying to sing just enough so that the air around her moves and make music like mercy that gives what it is and has nothing to prove she crawls out on a limb and begins to build her home and it's enough just to look around and to know that she's not alone up 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

Why do our kids have to show us what gun control is all about?

Science chases money, and money chases its tail, and the best minds of my generation cannot make bail.

They can call me crazy if I fail, all the chance that I need, is one-in-a-million and they can call me brilliant if I succeed.

We're led by denial like lambs to slaughter, serving empires of style and carbonated sugar water.

We get a little further from perfection each year. I think that's called character. I think that's just how it goes.

Life is a sleazy stranger, who looks vaguely familiar; flirting with a bimbo named disaster at the end of the bar.

There's this brutal imperial power, that my passport says I represent. But it will never represent where my heart lives, only vaguely where it went.

The fundamental imbalance that is behind all of the other social diseases is patriarchy.

I can jump ship and swim-- that the ocean will hold me, that there's got to be more than this boat I'm in.

I think if we can't use the word feminist, if it's some kind of taboo or dirty word, or means you're ugly, or you're angry, or you're not dateable [laughs], then you've just reduced the language by a whole concept.

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.

Maybe we are both good people who've done some bad things.

You've got your whole life to do something, And that's not very long. So why don't you give me a call When you're willing to fight For what you think is real, For what you think is right.

Patriarchy is like the elephant in the room that we don't talk about, but how could it not affect the planet radically when it's the superstructure of human society?

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

And if there's anything I do it's change and grow. I'm just a living being. Every year of my life I seem to learn that everything I know is wrong.

Women who don't control their own reproductive rights are not free.

I don't need anyone to hold me, I can hold my own.

Either you are a feminist or you are a sexist/misogynist. There is no box marked 'other'.

I just hope it was okay, I know it wasn't perfect, I hope in the end we can laugh and say it was all worth it.

In a man's world, I am a woman by birth and after 19 times around I have found - they will stop at nothing once they know what you are worth.

I will not be afraid to let my talent shine.

Emptiness has its solace in that there's nothing left to take.

I love my country, By which I mean, I am indebted joyfully, To all the people throughout its history, Who have fought the government to make right, Where so many cunning sons and daughters, Our foremothers and forefathers, Came singing through slaughter, Came through hell and high water, So that we could stand here, And behold breathlessly the sight, How a raging river of tears, Cut a grand canyon of light... Why can't all decent men and women, Call themselves feminists? Out of respect, For those who fought for this...

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.

But in the garden of simple, where all of us are nameless, you were never anything but beautiful to me.

I mean, I think it's hard enough to find somebody you can stand for more than ten minutes, so, like, you shouldn't narrow your options.

What bugs me is that you believe what you're saying. What bothers me is that you don't know how you feel. What scares me is that while you're telling me stories, you actually believe that they are real.

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.

Then I show up steady ready and proud and I find I've forgotten how to talk out loud. Isn't it just like you to bring me to my knees?

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.

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

Who says I like right angles? These are not my laws, these are not my rules.

I'm an atheist how unfortunate it is to assign responsibility to the higher up for justice amongst people.

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

Let's show them all how it's done, let's do it all imperfectly.

I'm sounding out the silence, avoiding all the words.

People talk about my image like I come in two dimensions, like lipstick is a sign of my declining mind, like what I happen to be wearing the day that someone takes my picture is my new statement for all womankind.

I'm aware enough, I guess, of American labor history.

How come I can pick my ears but not my nose?

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

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.

Like how could you do nothing, and say, 'I'm doing my best.' How could you take almost everything, and then come back for the rest? How could you beg me to stay, reach out your hands and plead, and then pack up your eyes and run away as soon as I agreed?

Lying in bed, you know, you don't seem so tall.

I try to laugh at whatever life brings.

My life may not be something special But it's never been lived before.

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."