47 Quotes by Cat Power

I got told so many times I needed a manager. For a long time I resisted, and I finally got one so I can pay my mortgage, and it helped me from becoming a homeless person.

Usually, I'll just sit down at a piano or with a guitar, and I'll just be relaxed and playing music. Because that's what relaxes your subconscious. That's why everyone from animals to humans love music.

From folk to tribal to Cab Calloway, Cole Porter, Gershwin to the Rolling Stones, whose first record was all covers, to country-western, bebop, blues, and even the referencing in classic hip hop to cliched love ballads of the '80s or whatever - that is kinda gone, and that's just terrifying to me.

I don't come from money or an educated family background or any sort of supportive family life, so all of my choices are made on my own.

I still haven't been able to capture the joy of what it's like when I sing - you know, when I'm by myself, or like when I was a little kid.

I'm not a professional entertainer. I'm not Neil Diamond.

If your parents gave you fire to play with when you were two, you'd be standing in fire by the time you were an adult.

I used to want to be a war photographer, and I used to want to be a ballerina and a comedian. I used to want to be a writer. I invalidated myself, it’s a mistake for me. I have learned through my friendships and through people that I’ve met who survived. There’s just a lot of stuff that really moves me, and I don’t know how to express it, and I just want to try to do the best I can and surround myself with good people who don’t invalidate me.

Everybody tends to think I'm crazy, which is the biggest problem in my life.