Quotes by Janis Ian

At the end of the day, all you can hope for is to go on. The older I get, the more I realize that just keeping on keeping on is what life's all about.

— Janis Ian

Hope

I learned the truth at seventeen, That love was meant for beauty queens, And high school girls with clear skinned smiles, Who married young and then retired.

— Janis Ian

Love

Once you're halfway home, you know that you can probably get the rest of the way there.

— Janis Ian

Wisdom

It's neat to have finally reached a point where I can accept what I was and what I am.

— Janis Ian

Wisdom

Artists are taught to be humble about their impact, especially in folk music. It's so ingrained that I have a hard time even thinking I had any impact other than what a normal hit song would have.

— Janis Ian

Wisdom

The best thing you can learn from the worst times of your life is that it always gets better. It may take a month, a year, a decade, but it will get better if you leave yourself open to it.

— Janis Ian

Education

I think these last 10 years have seen just a huge shift in the psyche of this country as regards gay people. I think AIDS had a lot to do with it. So many families who really believed they'd 'never met one' were suddenly confronted with their sons becoming ill, and friends of sons. I think that brought a lot of it into the open.

— Janis Ian

Friendship

It seems to be part of the human condition to need someone you can look down on. I still don't get that one.

— Janis Ian

Life

There will always be those people who are just backward and ignorant. There will always be those people. They need somebody to feel superior to.

— Janis Ian

Wisdom

I bought all my friends guitars and I had a good time with my money. But then one day the IRS came knocking.

— Janis Ian

Friendship

When you're young, the goal is to have a hit. You get a little older and the goal becomes to get to make another record.

— Janis Ian

Success

At the end of the day, if you don't have a record contract, a studio or a guitar, you can still write songs. You're still an artist. That's something no one can take away.

— Janis Ian

Wisdom

I started 'Society's Child' on a bus in East Orange as I was going home from school. I saw a black and white couple sitting there and started thinking about it.

— Janis Ian

Wisdom

I had a vague idea of the song's impact in the '60s, but that was tempered by the hate mail and threats I was receiving. It was only about ten years ago, when I finally put it back in my show because so many people were asking for it, that I understood 'Society's Child' real impact.

— Janis Ian

Wisdom

I see interracial couples all the time in Nashville. I'm a Jew in Nashville. I'm a gay person in Nashville. It's a non-issue in most of the time. That's a huge leap forward.

— Janis Ian

Wisdom

I think one of the reasons musicians keep doing what they do and writers keep doing what they do, is that we're totally unsuited for anything else. And I for one am much too lazy.

— Janis Ian

Wisdom

I was one of I think three white girls in my school. So, I was very much an outsider. And plus I was Jewish and all of my friends were black and Baptist because they listen to the coolest music. We were all listening to Ray Charles and what was then called race music.

— Janis Ian

Friendship

Of course, I have a different vested interest in the gay community, because I am gay, and I would certainly enjoy the tax advantages that straight people have, and the inheritance advantages, and things like Social Security, but I've always been a civil rights advocate across the board. That's how I was raised.

— Janis Ian

Happiness

A radio show recently did a beautiful eulogy of me.

— Janis Ian

Wisdom

It's what I do well - I write about things that make people uncomfortable. That's probably the only thing I do better than my peers.

— Janis Ian

Wisdom

Some people would rather stay ignorant and self-satisfied.

— Janis Ian

Wisdom

I played for anybody and everybody from the time I started playing guitar, when I was 10 or 11.

— Janis Ian

Wisdom

That's an amazing moment, the first time you hear yourself on radio. It's still thrilling.

— Janis Ian

Wisdom

Going off the road just leaves me more time to be a writer.

— Janis Ian

Wisdom