The 60-year-old New York-born songwriter and performer Natalie Merchant is known for her singular voice and her very big band, 10,000 Maniacs. That group rose to big-time fame thanks to their cover of Patti Smith’s hit, “Because the Night.”
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If you are wondering what one of the most beloved musicians of the 1990s music scene has to say about her life, art, family, and the world at large, look no further than our list of the best 15 quotes from Natalie Merchant below.
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1. “I’m going to be shaking my booty when I’m 55.”
2. “I would say I’d rather dig a ditch, you know, do hard, manual labor than write lyrics.”
3. “Literature gives us a window into other people’s experiences in other places, in other times, so I thought it would be really interesting to investigate how different people had written about motherhood, and childhood.”
4. “My mother was a single working mother; she started having children very young. There was a tension inside her about who she wanted to be and what she wanted to do and how she couldn’t achieve the things she wanted to.”
5. “Be true to yourself, and, um, don’t worry about some large companies’ quarterly profit index.”
6. “I’ve found out how overwhelming the media is and the way it drills things into your head, it’s almost like a mind control. If I could control people’s minds, I’d like to put something useful in.”
7. “I wish I had appreciated my youth—I should have worn tighter clothing when I could have!”
8. “I’ve raised my daughter with no television.”
9. “I was shy. Bookish. The kind of 13-year-old girl who, instead of having a boyfriend, would have a crush on a dead, 19th-century author!”
10. “I don’t want to live in a culture of despair. I’d like to live in a culture of hope.”
11. “It’s funny, I remember doing the Johnny Carson show, and, uh, I couldn’t afford my rent.”
12. “I’m on this search trying to figure out exactly who I am and what I have to say to people.”
13. “I can’t remove the autobiographical slant from the things I write. You always bring yourself into what you’re writing.”
14. “I think of myself as a musician and not a celebrity. Celebrity status is something you have to deliberately pursue—I couldn’t imagine myself seeking that.”
15. “It’s really wonderful to be able to be nobody, and then have a moment when I can be somebody, and then go right back to being nobody again.”
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