Ani DiFranco

Ani DiFranco 2017

Ani DiFranco (born Angela Marie Difranco on September 23, 1970) is a popular folk-rock singer-songwriter and guitarist.

Quotes

• I love all those great 'f' words - feminism, folk music..
  • from a 2003 interview with MuchMusic

• In any marginalized community, whether people identify themselves or not affects us all.
  • Regarding her bisexuality, 1994 interview

• I believe in that step of not just making revolutionary music but making it in a way that challenges the system, Especially in this day and age when the tools for producing and distributing are more and more accessible to the average Joe and Josephine. The possibility of emancipation and control and independence is so much greater now.
  • Rolling Stone interview (1995)

Song lyrics

• I think I'm done gunnin to get closer.
  To some imagined bliss.
  I gotta knuckle down.
  And just be ok with this.
  • "Knuckle Down"

• There's this brutal imperial power, that my passport says I represent.
  But it will never represent where my heart lives, only vaguely where it went.
  • Animal

• I don't always feel lucky, but I'm smart enough to try.
  • Grand Canyon

• Every tool is a weapon - if you hold it right.
  • My IQ; one of the mottos for the 2000 book Empire by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri

• They're gonna be mad at us.
  They're gonna be mad at me and you.
  They're gonna be mad at us and all the things we wanna do.
  • Shameless

• I used to be a superhero.
  No one could touch me, not even myself.
  You are like a phone booth that I somehow stumbled into,
  And now look at me, I am just like everybody else.
  • Superhero

• I am still praying for revolution.
  • Fixing Her Hair

• Some of life's best lessons are learned at the worst times.
  • Lost Woman Song

• Because the world owes me nothing
  And we owe each other the world.
  • Joyful Girl

• I am writing graffiti on your body.
  I am drawing the story of how hard we tried.
  • Both Hands

• Somedays the line I walk turns out to be straight -
  Other days the line tends to deviate.
  • In or Out

• And their eyes are all asking
  Are you in or are you out?
  And I think, oh man
  What is this about?
  Tonight you can't put me
  Up on any shelf
  Cuz I came here alone
  And I'm gonna leave by myself.
  • In or Out

• They say that the truth will set you free
  But then again, so will a lie...
  It depends if you're trying to get to the promised land
  Or if you're just trying to get by.
  • Promised Land

• I’m going to go ahead and go boldly
  Cuz a little bird told me
  That jumping is easy
  That falling is fun
  Right up ‘til you hit the sidewalk
  Shivering and stunned.
  • Swan Dive

• So we're led by denial like lambs to the slaughter
  Serving empires of style and carbonated sugar water
  And the old farm road's a four-lane that leads to the mall
  And our dreams are all guillotines waiting to fall.
  • Subdivision

• My distraction's my defense against this lack of inspiration
  Against this slow deflation
  Yeah the further the horizon
  The more it holds my gaze
  The foreground's out of focus but you know I kinda hope it's just a phase
  Just a phase.
  • Phase

• They can call me crazy if I fail
  All the chance that I need
  Is one in a million
  And they can call me brilliant
  If I succeed…
  • Swan Dive

• The windows of my soul are made of one way glass
  Don't bother looking into my eyes
  If there's something you want to know - just ask.
  • Willing to Fight

• Because I know the biggest crime
  Is just to throw up your hands
  And say "This has nothing to do with me,
  I just want to live as comfortably as I can.
  • Willing to Fight

• You've got your whole life to do something,
  And that's not very long.
  So why don't you give me a call
  When you're willing to fight
  For what you think is real,
  For what you think is right.
  • Willing to Fight

• Girl, next time he wants to know
  What your problem is
  Next time he wants to know
  Where the anger comes from
  Just tell him this time the problem's his
  Tell him the anger just comes
  It just comes.
  • Hide and Seek

• And God help you if you are a phoenix, and you dare to rise up from the ash.
  A thousand eyes will smolder with jealousy, while you're just flying past.
  • 32 Flavors

• Now let's get talking: reefer madness. Like some arrogant government can't,
  By any stretch of the imagination, outlaw a plant.
  • Evolve

• So I walk like I'm on a mission cuz that's the way I groove.
  I got more and more to do, I got less and less to prove.
  It took me too long to realize that I don't take good pictures
  Cuz I have the kind of beauty that moves.
  • Evolve

• And we hold these truths to be self-evident:
  Number one-- George W. Bush is not president.
  Number two-- America is not a true democracy.
  And, Number three-- the media is not fooling me.
  • Self-Evident

• Now I wonder who is gonna be president: Tweedle Dumb, or Tweedle Dumber--
  And who is gonna have the big block buster box office this summer.
  • Fuel

• Maybe you don't like your job, maybe you didn't get enough sleep--
  But nobody likes their job, nobody got enough sleep.
  Maybe you just had the worst day of your life;
  Well, you know, there's no escape.
  That's no excuse. Just suck up and be nice.
  • Pixie

• My country tis of thee,
  To take swings at each other on talk-show TV.
  • Tis of Thee

• Art is why I get up in the morning; my definition ends there.
  You know it doesn't seem fair,
  That I'm living for something I can't even define.
  And there you are right there, in the mean time.
  • Out of Habit

• My thighs have been involved in many accidents,
  And now I can't get insured,
  And I don't need to be lured by you.
  My cunt is built like a wound that won't heal,
  And now you don't have to ask
  Because you know how I feel.
  • Out of Habit

• So my heart finally broke. It was so long bent.
  And it broke in three places when it finally went.
  It wanted only to say what it meant.
  So it suffered every punishment.
  • You Each Time

• 'Course numb is an old hat, old as my oldest memories.
  See that one's my mother, and that one's my father, and that one in the hat, that's me.
  It's a skill I'd hoped to abandon, when I got out on the open road,
  But any more pent up emotion and I think I'm gonna explode.
  • Studying Stones

• And I was shocked to see the mistakes of each generation will just fade like a radio station, if we drive out of range.
  • Out of Range

• If you're not angry, you're just stupid, or you don't care.
  • Out of Range

• There's a crowd of people harbored in every person, there are so many roles that we play.
  And you've decided to love me for eternity. I'm still deciding who I want to be today"
  • Light of Some Kind

• Let's grow old and die together. Let's do it now.
  • The Waiting Song

• When I need to wipe my face, I use the back of my hand,
  And I like to take up space just because I can,
  And I use my dress to wipe up my drink.
  I care less and less what people think.
  • Dilate

• So I’ll walk the plank and I’ll jump with a smile.
  If I’m gonna go down, I’m gonna do it with style,
  and you won't see me surrender, you won't hear me confess,
  'Cuz you've left me with nothing, but i've worked with less.
  • Dilate

• You know
  Taken out of context I must
  Seem so strange.
  • Firedoor

• And everything seems to have gone terribly wrong that can.
  But one breath at a time is an acceptable plan,
  She tells herself.
  • Tamburitza Lingua

• My life may not be something special
  But it's never been lived before.
  • Brief Bus Stop

• We discovered we are both pleasantly furious half of the time,
  When we're not just toeing the line.
  • Brief Bus Stop

• I was blessed with a birth and a death, and I guess I just want some say in-between.
  • Talk To Me Now

• Freedom and democracy,
  That's the word from Washington every day.
  Put America to sleep with warm milk and clichés,
  And people are expendable along the way.
  • Dog Coffee

• They put you in your place, and they tell you to behave
  But no one can be free until we're all on even grade.
  • The Story

• Life is a b movie.
  It's stupid and it's strange,
  A directionless story,
  And the dialogue is lame.
  But in the he said, she said,
  Sometimes there's some poetry,
  If you turn your back long enough,
  And let it happen naturally.
  
  • Hell, Yeah

• I fight with love, and I laugh with rage.
  You've gotta live light enough to see the humor,
  And long enough to see some change.
  
  • Pick Yer Nose

• I remember now how our bright spring green deepened.
  With the years the seasons changed,
  And we were lush as the underside of August.
  • How Long Can It Last

• Love sets fire to your schedule,
  And then calls an end to time.
  • Star Matter

• I still define myself by the places that I've been.
  • North Main Street

• I always wanted to be commander-in-chief of my one-woman army,
  But I can envision the mediocrity of my finest hour.
  • Not So Soft

• I know there is strength in the differences between us,
  And I know there is comfort where we overlap.
  • Overlap

• I think you're the least fucked-up person I've ever met,
  And that may be as close to the real thing as I'm ever gonna get.
  • The Diner

• Sometimes the beauty is easy.
  Sometimes you don't have to try at all.
  Sometimes you can hear the wind blow in a handshake.
  Sometimes there's poetry written right on the bathroom wall.
  • Good, Bad, Ugly

• She says “Do I know you?” I say “Well, no, not biblically,
  But I've been waiting for you to come and talk to me.
  I have been playing too many of those boy-girl games.”
  She says, “Honey, you are safe here. This is a girl-girl thing.”
  • If It Isn't Her

• I am looking for the holes,
  The holes in your jeans
  Because I want to know:
  Are they worn out in the seat,
  Or are they worn out in the knees?
  • Looking for the Holes

• When we patch things up,
  They say a job well done.
  But when we ask the question why
  Where did the rips come from?,
  They say we are subversive,
  And extreme, of course.
  We are just trying to track a problem to its source.
  • Looking for the Holes

• I always feel I have to take a stand,
  And there's always someone on hand
  To hate me for standing there.
  I always feel I have to open my mouth,
  And every time I do, I offend someone, somewhere.
  • What If No One's Watching

• But what if no one's watching?
  What if when we're dead, we are just dead?
  What if there's no time to lose?
  What if there's things we gotta do,
  Things that need to be said?
  • What If No One's Watching

• We have to be able to criticize what we love,
  Say what we have to say,
  'Cause if you're not trying to make something better,
  Then as far as I can tell, you are just in the way.
  • What If No One's Watching

• People used to make records, as in the record of an event, the event of people playing music in a room, and now everything's cross-marketing, its about sunglasses and shoes, or guns and drugs that you choose."
  • Fuel