In Canada there's an extensive grant system that really allows people to make their work without having to suffer that much, and I'm staring to come around on that, that maybe people don't have to suffer. Maybe you can just not be unhappy and make beautiful music in Canada, maybe that's ok.

Emily Haines

Categorized in : People Beautiful Suffering

It bothers me that no one has the patience to deal with someone who is just sad.

Emily Haines

deals bother

I think if I were living in a utopian world, then it wouldn't be political commentary; it would be about daffodils.

Emily Haines

political would-be thinking

It's a strange life... you really don't know how you will impact people or how things will play out.

Emily Haines

impact play people

Being alive and understanding that and making the decision to actually live take a lot of courage.

Emily Haines

alive understanding decision

The writing process is very much like being in a dark tunnel, and you don't really know what you will end up with until you have created it.

Emily Haines

tunnels dark writing

Sometimes it's better to live through someone's work than the person themselves, and to realise that every human being is flawed, but through art they can be perfect.

Emily Haines

perfect sometimes art

I mean that's really depressing man. Of course, the kids are freaking out. They watch cartoons and sit in front of the television and their parents are just probably yuppies who focus their entire lives around the child. The child has no sense of context, no sense of what world they are inhabiting-just like this Disnified bag of Cheerios reality. Don't give them a @#$%& pill! God! Take them out on a canoe already! You know what I mean?

Emily Haines

depressing mean children

Until the day we die, our lives are unwritten, which is sometimes a terrifying thought.

Emily Haines

our-lives dies sometimes

I just write what comes to me. I didn't sit down and say ok, here is my statement. It's just a song that has a shout out.

Emily Haines

down-and writing song

The nature of making music and making art, what motivates me is that it's interesting. It's interesting to listen, to really listen to other people's point-of-view. Take in their work. Listen to the way they sing. Listen to the way they write lyrics. What they are trying to express.

Emily Haines

views writing art

For as long as I can remember, I have written songs because I wanted to, because I was experiencing something that couldn't be described except through a sound.

Emily Haines

sound song long

I have an identity crisis which is not resolved because I'm a dual citizen. My whole family is American, and I was born in India but I was raised in Canada. But all my extended family is American, I've held an American passport and I've spent my whole adult life in between New York and LA. So I feel like an American... and I also feel like a Canadian! I wish more people were dual citizens and then I wouldn't feel like such a freak.

Emily Haines

new-york wish people

Lots of people take the option of not activating their own life, of really letting it happen.

Emily Haines

happens people

It's not my fault that people are perverts.

Emily Haines

faults people

The architecture of the song, if it's built properly, can withstand all kinds of things.

Emily Haines

architecture kind song

Believe in the power of songs.

Emily Haines

song believe

I think that every band is different, and in fact that's one of the biggest problems with the old-school music industry is that... one band would be successful according to a certain approach, and then every other band in the label gets sent down the same tube.

Emily Haines

successful school thinking

I think every musician is different, every artist is different, and in a perfect world people would be able to pursue their own path and have the inspiration and the drive to, and the energy and dedication to take their path to its fruition. I don't really believe in formulas.

Emily Haines

inspiration believe thinking

It's very hard to separate what is a conscious decision and what's not.

Emily Haines

hard conscious decision

Life is passing you by as you speak, you're on a path and you're all on the same path toward death.

Emily Haines

speak path life-is