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Joan Baez

Joan Baez Quotes

Singer

Joan Baez is an American folk singer, born on January 9, 1941. She is known for her distinctive voice and active participation in the civil rights movement.

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All People Ifs Song Nonviolence Thinking Peace Knows Writing Violence Voice

Famous Joan Baez Quotes

“I'm not a rock and roller, a hitmaker. I'm highly dependent on what's coming out of these vocal cords.”

Rocks Dependent Coming Out Vocal Cords Vocal Cords

Author:Joan Baez

“It sounds corny, but it's absolutely true: A song chooses me. I don't go looking for a certain kind of lyric. It kind of develops its own little arc and I'll just see what happens.”

Kind Littles Happens Certain Song Sound Corny Arcs Choose Me

Author:Joan Baez

“The white music was melodic and pretty, and you had beautiful women's voices like Gogi Grant and even the Andrews Sisters. Then I went directly to rhythm and blues, which had beautiful voices but not much melody in particular and pretty much the same chord pattern. I loved it, I was entrenched in it, but then folk music came in the middle of that for me, and made its own path. And it was part of the rebellion against bubblegum music, or music that is pretty but doesn't say anything.”

Made Beautiful Voice White Path Middle Particular Folks Patterns Rhythm Rebellion Melody Grants Say Anything Chords Beautiful Women Andrew Folk Music Rhythm And Blues Beautiful Voice

Author:Joan Baez

“In this society, we don't like to face the future and the dying process and all of it. Most of us really don't want to think about it, but it's facing me in the mirror every day.”

Thinking Want Faces Process Dying Mirrors This Society

Author:Joan Baez

“I wasn't popular in school, I was Mexican, I was all these inappropriate things. I started playing the ukulele and taking it to school, and I realized people liked listening to it. I would play it to comfort myself at home, and I'd play rhythm and blues songs that had four chords. That's how it started.”

People Play Home School Song Four Listening Comfort I Realized Rhythm Chords Mexican Inappropriate Ukulele Rhythm And Blues

Author:Joan Baez

“I never pretended to be rock star. I would make a lousy rock star. I don't have the right voice for it. I don't have the "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll" spirit. But the greatest flattery in the last couple of years is being called a "badass" by young singers.”

Spirit Couple Drug Flattery Badass Rock Star

Author:Joan Baez

“I am so disconnected from the world of rock 'n' roll. I was always peripheral, partly because of the drug culture. I was not involved in that.”

World Culture Drug

Author:Joan Baez

“I was addicted to rhythm 'n' blues pretty much directly into folk music. I had my little 45s of mostly black artists. That was as close as I got. I've never listened to heavy rock or stuff that jangles my nerves, because I'm already jangled.”

Artist Black Rhythm Folk Music

Author:Joan Baez

“There's very little I can sing now. When I asked my first voice teacher, who was the best one, "When will I know when to stop singing?" he said, "Your voice will tell you." And it is very, very difficult to sing now.”

Difficult Teacher Singing

Author:Joan Baez

“I'm a badass. I really am. When you see me hanging with Snoop Doggy Dogg, I am perfectly at home and comfortable.”

Author:Joan Baez

“I have heard more than once, 'Shut up and sing!' and I get it now.”

Author:Joan Baez

“"Diamonds & Rust" started off as another song. Then the words started to morph. When you write a song that deep, the words come from some place else. But when the songs stop coming, it would be so contrived to try and force it. Since then I've just been doing other people's music.”

Writing Trying Song Diamond

Author:Joan Baez

“"Nasty Man" isn't a laughing matter, but you have to laugh anyway. The song, itself, becomes something of a laughing matter because we'd go crazy if we didn't keep laughing.”

Men Song Laughing Crazy Nasty

Author:Joan Baez

“Peace might sell, but who's buying?”

Might Sells Buying

Author:Joan Baez

“Only you and I can help the sun rise each coming morning. If we don't, it may drench itself out in sorrow. You special, miraculous, unrepeatable, fragile, fearful, tender, lost, sparkling ruby emerald jewel, rainbow splendor person. It's up to you.”

Ifs May Persons I Can Helping Lost Morning Sun Special Sorrow Fragile Fearful Rainbow Jewels Miraculous Up To You Splendor Sparkling Rubies Sun Rise Emeralds

Author:Joan Baez

“If you're gonna sing meaningful songs, you have to be committed to living a life that backs that up.”

Ifs Song Music Jazz Committed Meaningful Meaningful Song

Author:Joan Baez

“That's all nonviolence is - organized love.”

Humanity Peace Organized Protest Nonviolence Disobedience Nonviolent Communication Civil Disobedience Violence And Peace

Author:Joan Baez

“The only thing that's been a worse flop than the organization of nonviolence has been the organization of violence.”

Has Beens Peace Violence Organization Nonviolence

Author:Joan Baez

“The point of nonviolence is to build a floor, a strong new floor, beneath which we can no longer sink. A platform which stands a few feet above napalm, torture, exploitation, poison gas, A and H bombs, the works. Give man a decent place to stand.”

Men Giving Strong Peace Feet Torture Poison Decent Bombs Gas Nonviolence Platforms Exploitation Napalm Poison Gas

Book:DAYBREAK

Source: DAYBREAK

“As long as we keep searching, the answers come.”

Long Answers Adventure

Author:Joan Baez

“As long as one keeps searching, the answers will come.”

Long Answers Kindness Thoughtful

Author:Joan Baez

“Nonviolence is a flop. The only bigger flop is violence.”

Violence Bigger Nonviolence Flopping

Author:Joan Baez

“Instead of getting hard ourselves and trying to compete, women should try and give their best qualities to men - bring them softness, teach them how to cry.”

“It seems to me that those songs that have been any good, I have nothing much to do with the writing of them. The words have just crawled down my sleeve and come out on the page.”

Writing Has Beens Seems Song Music Pages Singing Memorable Songwriting Songwriters Sleeves Writing Songs Singing Songs

Author:Joan Baez

“Only you and I can help the sun rise each coming morning. If we don't, it may drench itself out in sorrow.”

Ifs May I Can Helping Morning Sun Sorrow Sun Rise

Author:Joan Baez

“I was writing "Diamonds and Rust' and it had nothing to do with what it turned out to be. I don't remember what it is, but I think I was writing a song. It was literally interrupted by a phone call, and it just took another curve and it came out to be what it was.”

Thinking Writing Remember Song Phones Songwriting Diamond Curves Phone Calls Interrupted Rust

Author:Joan Baez

“Sometimes I think that it is enough to say that if we don't sit down and shut up once in a while we'll lose our minds even earlier than we had expected. Noise is an imposition on sanity, and we live in very noisy times.”

Ifs Thinking Mind Sometimes Enough Loses Depression Down And Illness Expected Mental Illness Noise Sanity Shut Up Noisy Imposition

Book:DAYBREAK

Source: DAYBREAK

“I went to jail for 11 days for disturbing the peace; I was trying to disturb the war.”

Trying War Jail Disturbing Disturbing Things

Author:Joan Baez

“I've been obsessed with stopping people from blowing each other's brains out since I was ten.”

People Brain Ten Obsessed Stopping

Author:Joan Baez

“I was trying to disturb the war.”

Author:Joan Baez

“You may not know it, but at the far end of despair, there is a white clearing where one is almost happy.”

Knows May Ends White Despair Adversity Clearing Ignorance Is Bliss

Author:Joan Baez

“To love means you also trust.”

Love Mean Love Means

Author:Joan Baez

“I would say that I'm a nonviolent soldier. In place of weapons of violence, you have to use your mind, your heart, your sense of humor, every faculty available to you...because no one has the right to take the life of another human being.”

Mind Humans Heart Use Human Beings Violence Weapons Soldier Available Protest Faculty Sense Of Humor Nonviolence Disobedience Civil Disobedience

Author:Joan Baez

“I think music has the power to transform people, and in doing so, it has the power to transform situations - some large and some small.”

People Thinking Situation

Author:Joan Baez

“Hypothetical questions get hypothetical answers.”

Answers Logic Hypothetical

Author:Joan Baez

“As we know, forgiveness of oneself is the hardest of all the forgivenesses.”

Knows Oneself Hardest

Author:Joan Baez

“To sing is to love and affirm, to fly and to soar, to coast into the hearts of the people who listen to tell them that life is to live, that love is there, that nothing is a promise, but that beauty exists, and must be hunted for and found.”

People Heart Life Is Found Love Is Promise Coast Soar Hunted

Book:DAYBREAK

Source: DAYBREAK

“Someone had to change the world. And obviously I was the one for the job.”

World Jobs Changing The World

Author:Joan Baez

“I have hope in people, in individuals. Because you don't know what's going to rise from the ruins.”

People Knows Individual Ruins Having Hope

Author:Joan Baez

“The search is in the doing.”

Author:Joan Baez

“God must have something to do with joy ... and with sadness.”

God Joy Sadness

Author:Joan Baez

“We're not really pacifists, we're nonviolent soldiers.”

Soldier Pacifist

Author:Joan Baez

“The foundation of my beliefs is the same as it was when I was 10. Non-violence.”

Belief Violence Foundation Non Violence

Author:Joan Baez

“Put tattoos all up and down our thighs, do anything our parents would despise. Take uppers, downers, blues, and reds and yellows, our brains are turning into jello.”

Reality Parent Brain Despise Tattoo Up And Down Thighs Downers Jello

Author:Joan Baez

“Now I know I understand that it was Sgt. Pepper's Band, that put the sixties into song, where have all the heroes gone?”

Knows Song Gone Hero Band Sixty Peppers Sgt Pepper

Author:Joan Baez

“Sometimes I get lonesome for a storm. A fullblown storm where everything changes.”

Sometimes Nature Storm Things Change Lonesome

Book:DAYBREAK

Source: DAYBREAK

About the Author

Born: January 9, 1941
Known for: Singer
Quotes: 96

Related Topics

People Ifs Song Nonviolence Thinking Peace Knows Writing Violence Voice

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

DAYBREAKRelated source material

And A Voice to Sing With: A MemoirRelated source material

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