Quote

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.

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
Write
Basic
Nature
Instinct
Chorus
Certain
Reach
Songwriter
Back
Level
Songwriters
Real
Second
Rhyme
Writing
Levels
Craft
Always
Head
Crafts
Time
Talking
Tells

More quotes by Janis Ian

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It's neat to have finally reached a point where I can accept what I was and what I am.
Janis Ian
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Wish I'd written Tikkun Olam – a Weavers or Peter Paul & Mary hit!
Janis Ian
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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.
Janis Ian
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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 think all of us thought that by the '70s, at the latest the '80s, all the world's problems would be solved and everyone would be getting along fine. And instead we saw that Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated that year, Robert F. Kennedy died. We saw that it was going to be a lot more difficult than I think we had thought.
Janis Ian
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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.
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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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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I don't pretend to be an expert on intellectual property law, but I do know one thing. If a music industry executive claims I should agree with their agenda because it will make me more money, I put my hand on my walletand check it after they leave, just to make sure nothing's missing.
Janis Ian
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It seems to be part of the human condition to need someone you can look down on. I still don't get that one.
Janis Ian
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Artists are taught to be humble about their impact, especially in folk music. It's so ingrained that I have a hard time even thinking I had any impact other than what a normal hit song would have.
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 was one of I think three white girls in my school. So, I was very much an outsider. And plus I was Jewish and all of my friends were black and Baptist because they listen to the coolest music. We were all listening to Ray Charles and what was then called race music.
Janis Ian
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Truth is not the enemy and whatever does not kill us, sets us free.
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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The best thing you can learn from the worst times of your life is that it always gets better. It may take a month, a year, a decade, but it will get better if you leave yourself open to it.
Janis Ian
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Some people would rather stay ignorant and self-satisfied.
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
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Going off the road just leaves me more time to be a writer.
Janis Ian