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I bought all my friends guitars and I had a good time with my money. But then one day the IRS came knocking.

Janis Ian

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Janis Ian
Age: 73
Born: 1951
Born: April 7
Autobiographer
Composer
Guitarist
Journalist
Novelist
Poet
Science Fiction Writer
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Songwriter
Writer
The Bronx
New York City
Janis Eddy Fink
Came
Friends
Money
Irs
Good
Guitars
Time
Knocking
Bought
Guitar

More quotes by Janis Ian

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Wish I'd written Tikkun Olam – a Weavers or Peter Paul & Mary hit!
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I think one of the reasons musicians keep doing what they do and writers keep doing what they do, is that we're totally unsuited for anything else. And I for one am much too lazy.
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It's neat to have finally reached a point where I can accept what I was and what I am.
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The money when you're having a hit is great, but money can be taken from you. What can't be taken from you is the talent and the effect your work has.
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Society's Child' was a real hard record to start with. That's all you want is for you to put your first record out and have people screaming at you in the streets. But it taught me right away that what I was doing was valuable and important.
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Once you're halfway home, you know that you can probably get the rest of the way there.
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Truth is not the enemy and whatever does not kill us, sets us free.
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Of course, I have a different vested interest in the gay community, because I am gay, and I would certainly enjoy the tax advantages that straight people have, and the inheritance advantages, and things like Social Security, but I've always been a civil rights advocate across the board. That's how I was raised.
Janis Ian
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I write a lot from instinct. But as you're writing out of instinct, once you reach a certain level as a songwriter, the craft is always there talking to you in the back of your head...that tells you when it's time to go to the chorus, when it's time to rhyme. Real basic craft... it's second nature.
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I feel I was born with the music coming to me, and that's not something to be wasted.
Janis Ian
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My parents both were doing the Civil Rights Movement, were very involved with the civil rights to Congress. And my friends' parents were as well.
Janis Ian
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I think these last 10 years have seen just a huge shift in the psyche of this country as regards gay people. I think AIDS had a lot to do with it. So many families who really believed they'd 'never met one' were suddenly confronted with their sons becoming ill, and friends of sons. I think that brought a lot of it into the open.
Janis Ian
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Going off the road just leaves me more time to be a writer.
Janis Ian
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The heart of a city Is the soul of a man It winds like a river Through the heart of the land They can tear down a building They can tear down a park They can strike at a symbol But they can't strike the heart.
Janis Ian
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It's what I do well - I write about things that make people uncomfortable. That's probably the only thing I do better than my peers.
Janis Ian
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I started 'Society's Child' on a bus in East Orange as I was going home from school. I saw a black and white couple sitting there and started thinking about it.
Janis Ian
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There will always be those people who are just backward and ignorant. There will always be those people. They need somebody to feel superior to.
Janis Ian
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Some people would rather stay ignorant and self-satisfied.
Janis Ian
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I was interviewed for a Grammy television show, and they asked me about Nashville, and I talked for three minutes and when I finished, I was teared up. The whole room was crying. Nashville has given me a home, where I never had a home before.
Janis Ian
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I know just enough Japanese to get by if I get lost and greet an audience properly, just from having a lot of Japanese friends and being there over the years.
Janis Ian