I do have this reputation for being a serious person. Joni Mitchell More Quotes by Joni Mitchell More Quotes From Joni Mitchell The rock & roll industry is very incestuous, and we have all been close at one time or another. A lot of beautiful music and a lot of beautiful times came from that. A lot of pain, too, because, inevitably, different relationships broke up. Joni Mitchell rocks pain beautiful I'm not a kiss-and-teller. I never named names. Joni Mitchell kissing names The Beginning of Survival is my best album. I am very proud of it, and I am surprised at it, too. I thought some of Travelogue was a little heavy, but I don't think this is heavy. Joni Mitchell albums survival thinking I like my freedom. I like to do my own grocery shopping. People do recognize you. They are kind of shocked. Some people like it. It makes them feel at ease. It confirms their hopes that you are in fact similar to them. Joni Mitchell shopping ease people I certainly don't want to be an angry old artist. Joni Mitchell angry artist want Buddy Holly and the early rock 'n' roll was no lighter than the way I play. It's very minimal. Joni Mitchell hollies rocks play Everyone I know has attention deficit, and they say it with great pride. It's a bad time to be right. Joni Mitchell bad-times pride attention Rachmaninoff made a musician out of me. His 'Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini' was the piece that sent me into raptures. It spoke to me. To me, it was a tender entreaty for the misunderstood. Joni Mitchell misunderstood musician pieces I don't like to make fluffy little songs, but now I want to make some light songs. Joni Mitchell light want song My family could only afford to get me the box of eight Crayola crayons, but I craved the one with all 24 colours. I wanted magenta and turquoise and silver and gold. Joni Mitchell silver eight gold Musically, I don't think I'd ever dry up. I trust my musical invention. Joni Mitchell dry-up musical thinking I'm not a pitiable creature. It's just that I suffer very eloquently. Joni Mitchell creatures suffering In terms of fiction, I'd rather go out and have a good time than read a book about someone having a good or bad time. Joni Mitchell good-times book fiction I wanted to paint in a folk-artist-y way. My heroes were Van Gogh, Gauguin, Matisse, and Rembrandt. I think Picasso is about as a modern as I got. But I incorporated things that they rejected as well as movements that happened later. Joni Mitchell artist hero thinking I'm a method actress in my songs, which is why it's hard to sing them. Joni Mitchell method actresses song I'd had a rough childhood. Joni Mitchell rough childhood My individual, psychological descent coincided, ironically, with my ascent into the public eye. Joni Mitchell ascent psychological eye I couldn't see passion as a bad thing. Joni Mitchell bad-things passion America is in a runaway-train position and dragging all the world with it. It's grotesquely mentally ill. Joni Mitchell runaway america world The coming of the kids hasn't come out in my art yet. Joni Mitchell kids art