Alanis Morissette

Sometimes life is so unkind, but change is never a waste of time

Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you when you think everything's okay and everything's going right.

Life has a funny way of helping you out when you think everything's gone wrong and everything blows up in your face.

My three addictions of choice are food, love and work.

Courage and willingness to just go for it, whether it is a conversation or a spontaneous trip, or trying new things that are scary - it is a really attractive quality.

America's a very traumatized society.

I didn't have high self-esteem when I was a teen-ager as I think most teen-agers don't.

I guess what people forget sometimes is that when I write songs, I write them sometimes in about 20 minutes.

The more vulnerable and the more confused the song is, the equal and opposite effect is how I feel after having written it.

I felt like I was making a record under the radar and that is my favorite way to do anything.

I'll keep evolving and put that into my songs.

It's when someone has an agenda of their own for the record that it doesn't work for me.

I still indulge in a glass of wine or chocolate - treats are mandatory. Without deviating from the day-to-day healthy diet once in a while it wouldn't be sustainable for me and that's what I wanted: an approach to eating to last my entire life.

I'll be writing songs till I die. There's just no question.

I'm about 90 percent vegan. I think veganism is really well suited for training at least for me anyway.

I remember thinking during those times that I wanted to write in a way where there are no rules.

I'm excited about there being more of a sisterhood these days. Back in the '90s there was a lot of hate - the women I looked up to as artists were dissing me! It's not so patriarchal these days - there's more love and a lot less hate!

To me the biggest irony of this lifetime that I'm living is that for someone who thrives in the public eye in the creative ways that I do I actually don't enjoy being in the public eye.

I thought the more famous I became the more friendships I would have but the opposite was true.

Getting married and starting a family has been a lifelong goal and one that I have persevered through different paths up to it!

They're different kinds of challenges, depending upon what phase of life I'm in.

I've been doing a lot of different cross-training and kickboxing and Capoeira and kite surfing and I've just really been back to what I consider my original athletic self.

My brother says that I was writing songs about fate while he was off playing soccer. Now I tell him he's 33 and being a professional, while I'm playing soccer with my friends. Ha!

Trauma happens in relationships so it can only be healed in relationships. Art can't provide healing. It can be cathartic and therapeutic but a relationship is a three-part journey.

I could write six songs in one day with everything that's going on.

I think a common misperception about attuning and tending to a child's needs so constantly is that they don't grow in their independence, but I think that the opposite is true.

If I could sell 500 million records every time it would be great. But I've also had the luxury experience of having it when I was a teenager in a very kind of model version of it.

My message to anyone who's afraid that they can't write music when they're happy is 'Just trust the passion.' The passion can write a lot of things.

I see my body as an instrument rather than an ornament.

Canada has a passive-aggressive culture with a lot of sarcasm and righteousness. That went with my weird messianic complex. The ego is a fascinating monster. I was taught from a young age that I had to serve so that turned into me thinking I had to save the planet.

Europe seems a little softer but in America it's harsh. In L.A. where I live it's all about perfectionism.

The whole celebrity thing is not something I'm overly interested in. I don't pop up at parties. It's just not my thing.

There's cleanliness to how I eat now. I'm much more in tune with my body so now that I'm so in tune based on having become a semivegan I can tell what foods affect energy levels. I can tell when I've been eating particularly high nutrient foods or I can tell when my glycemic levels are all over the place.

I did commit to myself that I would not jump back into being the workaholic that I can be before I gave myself an honest opportunity to create the marriage of my dreams and to create the beginning of the family of my dreams and that took a hot second.

It's not just the 'Grammys' that I've pulled out of. I also pulled out of the English awards as well. The reason that I wanted to pull out was because I believe very much that the music industry as a whole is mainly concerned with material success.

Well as a kid I did not get Shakespeare. I just never understood it.

What's that line from TS Eliot? To arrive at the place where you started but to know it for the first time. I'm able to write about a breakup from a different place. Same brokenness. Same rock-bottom. But a little more informed now I'm older. Thank God for growing up.

We'll love you just the way you are if you're perfect.

There were a lot of people who were a little afraid of the rage or blaming stance I was taking and find what I am doing now more refreshing.

I think quite spiritually of myself. I feel like I'm here to support the human evolution.

When someone says that I'm angry it's actually a compliment. I have not always been direct with my anger in my relationships which is part of why I'd write about it in my songs because I had such fear around expressing anger as a woman.

I love songs that are very autobiographical.

The people that were invested in me staying the same way after a decade will most likely by default have to be disappointed.

Typically I go in the studio and whatever I'm contemplating that day will wind up being a song. I don't come in with lyrics... I just go in and let it happen.

Down the road I'll probably have a kid or two or three. And there will probably be political events or spiritual things to comment on and humor.

I just feel compelled to continue to be transparent. It just really levels the playing field and eradicates the shame that I have or that one might have about being human. So I'm going to just keep going.

It's a joke to think that anyone is one thing. We're all such complex creatures. But if I'm going to be a poster child for anything anger's a gorgeous emotion. It gets a bad rap but it can make great changes happen.

I was taught from a young age that I had to serve so that turned into me thinking I had to save the planet.

I was always such a people-watcher. I would sit on street corners alone and watch people and make up stories about them in my head. Then all of a sudden I was the one being watched.

I think it's child abuse to have someone in the public eye too young. Society basically values wealth and fame and power at the cost of well-being. In the case of a child it's at the cost of someone's natural development. It's already hard enough to develop.

For four to six months at a time I would barely eat. I lived on a diet of Melba toast carrots and black coffee.

In the past I had workaholic issues.

I was motivated by just thinking that if you had all this external success that everyone would love you and everything would be peaceful and wonderful.

I have a profound empathy for people who are in the public eye whether they manifest it themselves or whether it happened by accident - it doesn't matter to me. I think there's a great misunderstanding of what it is to be famous.

At one point I was just perceived as only being angry but now I'm being perceived as angry peaceful and spiritual.

When I'm off the road my husband and I recharge our batteries. It's a day of deep rest and connection with the spiritual and that can be anything - going for a walk in nature being in silence burning incense.

When I was younger I was terrified to express anger because it would often kick-start a horrible reaction in the men in my life. So I bit my tongue. I was left to painstakingly deal with the aftermath of my avoidance later in life in therapy or through the lyrics of my songs.

I'm clearly most well known for my music. Eventually ultimately I'll be writing books. I'm still writing articles now. I just consider myself a writer.

Music will always be a part of my life. I love music and I don't care how many units I sell.

I saw music as a way to entertain people and take them away from their daily lives and put smiles on their faces as opposed to what I see it being now which is a way for me to actually communicate and a way for me to tap into my subconscious.

Partnership is the way. Dictatorial win-lose is so old-school.

The thing I always default to is that I'll always be here to write songs.

I wish people could acheive what they think would bring them happiness in order for them to realize that thats not really what happiness is.

I want to walk through life instead of being dragged through it.

What influenced me was Tori Amos who was unapologetic about expressing anger through music and Sinead O'Connor. Those two in particular were really moving for me and very inspiring before I wrote 'Jagged Little Pill.'

And ultimately the people who produce my records they know that they're here to serve the purpose of me expressing who I am at this period of time and augmenting that or pulling it forward and I love that process.

I try to keep a low profile in general. Not with my art but just as a person.

I make up new lyrics to well-known lullabies. Mostly because I don't actually know a lot of the lyrics.

I can't not write if I don't then I get really depressed.

I was left to painstakingly deal with the aftermath of my avoidance later in life in therapy or through the lyrics of my songs.

Making a movie requires 20 to 500 people to make and a lot of money and the stakes are a lot higher.

And if I had a preference, it would be to be able to not be in the studio until 4 in the morning.

I didn't want to be one of those women who wake up at 63 years old and realize they've missed the window of opportunity for marriage and children.

There's a continuity between what I care about in any form: I care about it in my music in article-writing in how I dress in how I live in my relationships in how I navigate paparazzi how I decorate my home. There's such a continuity between everything that I don't really care what form it shows up in.

Ageism works in both directions. As a teenager in the public eye, people would talk condescendingly to me. When you get older there's this feeling that you have to start carving up your face and body. Right now I'm in the middle ground - I think women in their thirties are taken seriously.

I found that the more truthful and vulnerable I was the more empowering it was for me.

The ego is a fascinating monster.

My parents offered me the idea of ceilinglessness. There was no limit in terms of what was possible, no messages sent to me to say that I couldn't do anything.

I've been really enjoying writing articles and writing music and music for movies.

I need to be performing. I need to be acting. I need to be designing a condo and ripping down walls and buying new plates and looking at fashion magazines. There always has to be some movement in the artistic department for me to not get really really low.

I see the whole concept of Generation X implies that everyone has lost hope.

Then I realized that secrecy is actually to the detriment of my own peace of mind and self and that I could still sustain my belief in privacy and be authentic and transparent at the same time. It was a pretty revelatory moment and there's been a liberating force that's come from it.

Over the last couple of years I've really worked toward balancing my life out more having a little bit more time with friends family and my boyfriend. There was a period of time when they were way down the list. It was all about music and touring and if everything fell by the wayside so be it.

Unless I really loved it and felt really passionate about it, I would just kind of abort the song and start a new one.

A good man often appears gauche simply because he does not take advantage of the myriad mean little chances of making himself look stylish. Preferring truth to form he is not constantly at work upon the facade of his appearance.

I think some people think I'm a smarty-pants. Some people think I'm intense some people think I'm super-esoteric and nuts.

But once I acclimated and really used fame for what it was offering me as a tool to serve my life purpose of inspiring and contributing then it started to get fun again.

I know that I'm deeply spiritually profoundly philosophical and I also know that I'm about the flakiest person you're gonna meet.

But I love to entertain. My vocation is to accrue all these experiences to write about them to get them out of my system to not get sick and then to share them publicly.

And I always laugh at that because I think I've always been doing what I want to do since Day 1.

As a teen I was both anorexic and bulimic.

Anything I do has to be directly related to my music. If it isn't I don't really see a point to it.

I think it's irresponsible when celebrities imply they're doing it all themselves. My son has aunties and uncles around all the time and my husband is my hero. He's really full-on. I couldn't do it any other way.

I live with some of my best friends from high school very commune-like in my house. It's my hippie way of life.

With songwriting I spend a lot of time living life accruing all these experiences, journaling, and then by the time I get to the studio I'm teeming with the drive to write.

I happen to be lucky in that I knew what I wanted to do as far as a career since I was nine years old.

You live you learn.

As long as I can say what it is that I need to say then I'll fit whatever I'm trying to say around a melody.

I'm doing it because I choose it. And if it's not working I can make a change.

The person who knows HOW will always have a job. The person who knows WHY will always be his boss.

I could get away with not taking care of myself as a bachelorette but as a mom I can't.

Long hair is a security blanket for me. I cut it short a few years ago and I really never want to do that again. When I do cut it I cut it myself.

I'm a liability to them - I'm a woman I'm empowered I'm an artist. I've had executives who can't come to my shows they're so scared of me. I've been a thorn in many people's sides just by existing.

Breakups are a horrible thing for almost everybody I know. For someone who is a love addict it's debilitating.

I get angry at myself for staying in relationships way too long.

In LA where I live it's all about perfectionism. Beauty is now defined by your bones sticking out of your decolletage. For that to be the standard is really perilous for women.

My greatest environments in which I can grow or grow up is in personal romantic relationships with a man.

I find as an artist if I'm not expressed relatively consistently I get really depressed.

We're taught to be ashamed of confusion anger fear and sadness and to me they're of equal value to happiness excitement and inspiration.

Beauty is now defined by your bones sticking out of your decolletage. For that to be the standard is really perilous for women.

I really do see that anywhere I am whether it's doing interviews a hundred in a row that every situation I'm in I'm at choice in the matter.

Infidelity is a deal breaker for me. I've broken up with people over it. You can't do monogamy 90 percent of the time.

I grew up in a very masculine environment. So I was around a lot of men my brothers and their friends. There was just a lot of guys around.

I was born in '74 so I missed out on all the great early '60s and early '70s.

Peace of mind for five minutes that's what I crave.

Fame is hollow. It amplifies what is there. If there is any self-doubt or hatred or lack of ability to connect with people fame will magnify it.

I'm really clear about what my life mission is now. There's no more depression or lethargy and I feel like I've returned to the athlete I once was. I'm integrating all the parts of me - jock musician writer poet philosopher - and becoming stronger as a result.

At some point I would like to write a book and other things but I work best when there is some sort of deadline in my own mind, but not when fifty people or fifty million people are breathing down the back of my neck.

When I start writing songs and it turns into an overly belabored intellectual process, I just throw it out.

What I try to keep in mind is that there are going to be a lot of articles that are going to be misrepresentative of what I'm about as a person and as a writer.

I think there is no better way to invite a human being to view their body differently than by inviting them to be an athlete by revering one's body as an instrument rather than just an ornament.

In my opinion I think sarcasm and humor in a song, without turning it into a novelty song, is really charming.

When I was producing on my own I was doing it in order to - in a very patriarchal entertainment industry let alone planet - very much hell-bent on trying to prove to myself if nothing else that I could do it as a woman.

I'll be writing records until I'm dead whether people like it or not!

I started playing piano when I was 6. And I knew that wanted to be involved in that form of expression whether it was through music or acting or dancing or painting or writing.

I think some fans want everything to stay they same because they want to stay the same.

My own approach has always been to push intense emotions down and attempt to deal with them later.