There’s no two ways about it. Grace Slick is a badass. The frontwoman for the ’60s rock band Jefferson Airplane and ’70s band Jefferson Starship, Slick is a retired rocker and an accomplished painter. Today, the 83-year-old Illinois-born artist remains an icon.
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But given all this experience one might wonder what Slick might have to say about about the world around her, about life and love, her crafts and art. These are the 20 best Grace Slick quotes.
[RELATED: 15 Thought-Provoking Quotes from Van Morrison]
1. “If you don’t own the stage, you shouldn’t be in rock ‘n’ roll.”
2. “When you learn that a truth is a lie, anger follows.”
3. “Some of us don’t want to be a housewife. When you live alone, you can do anything you want to do anytime you want. I really like it.”
4. “There is an attitude that we should be able to have everything. No, you shouldn’t be able to have anything. I’d like a helicopter, but I can’t afford a helicopter, so I don’t buy one.”
5. “In school, I learned about artists and how they were free to express themselves. I was allergic to conformity, and the lifestyle attracted me. I wanted to express myself in a way that slammed people up against the wall.”
6. “No matter how big or soft or warm your bed is, you still have to get out of it.”
7. “You can do any number of things in the music business aside from trying to look like you’re 25. To me it’s embarrassing.”
8. “Too many people try to please their parents. My parents were Republicans, which is too bad, but they allowed me to be who I wanted to be.”
9. “When I was between the ages of five and nine, the soldiers of the Second World War wanted to have Betty Grable, but I wanted to be Betty Grable. She was the epitome of an alluring woman; she had it all as far as I was concerned.”
10. “‘Feminist comedy,’ practically an oxymoron, had a couple of good years after WWII. Chalk it up to the forced female autonomy that occurred during wartime, when Rosie the Riveter went to work in the factories, constructing the Allies’ war machines while taking charge of the finances, the home, and the children.”
11. “I find it amusing on one level, poignant on another, when people try to get recognition from an outside source. It’s sad.”
12. “Woodstock is well known because this country is so hyped on amount. It was big. Half a million people doesn’t necessarily mean something is good. It just means it’s big.”
13. “When you get older, it’s not about what you did that you regret, it’s what you didn’t do.”
14. “Through your life, most people peel away the junk that’s not useful, that’s superfluous. You are determined to peel that away. I do one thing at a time. One man at a time. One car. One house. One child. One job.”
15. “Starship was a whole different thing. It was pop rock. It made more money and had more hit songs than Airplane. There was no cultural or social ethic behind it. For me, it was like selling out. I was the only one selling out. The rest enjoyed doing what they were doing.”
16. “The way I paint is similar to rock in that you don’t stand around and say, ‘Gee, what are they talking about?’ Rock is simple, blunt, colorful. Same with my paintings. You don’t stand back and wonder what it is. That’s Jim Morrison, that’s a panda, that’s a scene on the West Coast. It’s not abstract.”
17. “God is all over the place. And even if He isn’t, if it makes me feel good, why not?”
18. “You either evolve or you don’t. I don’t like old people on a rock n’ roll stage. I think they look pathetic, me included. And the fact that I represent an era means I can’t just go out there and do all new stuff. They would all say, ‘Sing ‘White Rabbit,’ and I’d say no? That’s rude.”
19. “Through literacy you can begin to see the universe. Through music you can reach anybody. Between the two there is you, unstoppable.”
20. “Death is like taking an intermission when you can’t come back. I like living and being around.”
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
