For me, I was about 16 or so when I first heard her, and those first two albums of hers...completely influenced my singing and my style as well as my feelings for what it was to be a woman...and learn about men and heartache and about resilience and respect.

Bonnie Raitt

Categorized in : Entertainment

I'm certain that it was an incredible gift for me to not only be friends with some of the greatest blues people who've ever lived, but to learn how they played, how they sang, how they lived their lives, ran their marriages, and talked to their kids.

Bonnie Raitt

incredibles kids people

Religion is for people who are scared to go to hell. Spirituality is for people who have already been there.

Bonnie Raitt

spiritual faith god

You know, a lot of people feel that sobriety is about just stopping using whatever it was that you appeared to be addicted to, but it really has to do with a way of looking at your life and taking accountability.

Bonnie Raitt

accountability sobriety people

It's always enjoyable to listen to a friend's work, but if it doesn't resonate with you, then you can just appreciate it and it inspires you in its own way.

Bonnie Raitt

appreciate inspire way

I never saw music in terms of men and women or black and white. There was just cool and uncool.

Bonnie Raitt

saws black-and-white men

Life gets mighty precious when there's less of it to waste.

Bonnie Raitt

waste

How unthinkable that, in a country of such bursting plenty, so many people are facing ongoing hunger and poverty. If we are truly each other's keepers, let's support school lunches, food stamps, neighborhood garden projects, and so many other wonderful programs working to put an end to this cruel and needless blight once and for all.

Bonnie Raitt

garden country school

I finally learned to accept that I can't make radio play blues any more than I could get Reagan out of the White House.

Bonnie Raitt

white house play

I would love to see a revival of what we had against the war in the '60s - we could do these teach-ins on the internet, live and split screen, and have real in-depth debate between people that are on the "other" side of issues - nuclear, gun control, whatever. We could really be having a much more democratically involved and exciting debate with people emailing their questions and having a virtual town meeting.

Bonnie Raitt

gun real war

Solar power is the last energy resource that isn't owned yet - nobody taxes the sun yet.

Bonnie Raitt

lasts energy sun

We can choose, you know, we ain't no amoeba.

Bonnie Raitt

amoeba adages knows

We can live in fear or act out of hope.

Bonnie Raitt

inspirational

I would rather feel things in extreme than not at all.

Bonnie Raitt

extremes feelings feels

There's lots of flaws and frailties and cracks in the armor, and nobody wants to put themselves out there as some kind of Joan of Arc because none of us can live up to that, but I'm grateful to be a role model and be respected because I have a whole slew of people, men and women, that I feel the same way about.

Bonnie Raitt

grateful men people

I think people must wonder how a white girl like me became a blues guitarist. The truth is, I never intended to do this for a living.

Bonnie Raitt

girl white thinking

I don't want to sound like a self-help book, but it really has been transformative for me to take a look at my relationships in a new way and see my part in them. Everybody's going through that.

Bonnie Raitt

self sound book

Ugly ducklings don't turn into swans and glide off down the lake. Whether your sunglasses are on or off, you only see the world you make.

Bonnie Raitt

ugly-duckling swans lakes

Those of us with a microphone who are blessed with the gift of being in the public eye have a special opportunity to give voice to all those groups whose activism is sometimes ignored or put on the back pages with the the dumbing down of television and the tabloidization of journalism. As Ralph Nader called it, "sound barks," not even sound bites.

Bonnie Raitt

eye blessed opportunity

Really important issues are getting lost, so I can say I'm glad to be a citizen of the planet and do my part.

Bonnie Raitt

issues citizens important

In 1967 I entered Harvard as a freshman, confident - in the way that only 17-year-olds are - that I could change the world. My major was African Studies, and my plan was to travel to Tanzania, where President Julius Nyerere was creating a government based on democracy and socialism.

Bonnie Raitt

creating government years