Ani Difranco
Ani Difranco
Ani DiFrancois an American singer, multi-instrumentalist, poet, songwriter and businesswoman. She has released more than 20 albums and is widely considered a feminist icon. DiFranco has received positive feedback from critics for much of her career...
ProfessionFolk Singer
Date of Birth23 September 1970
CityBuffalo, NY
fundamentals disease imbalance
The fundamental imbalance that is behind all of the other social diseases is patriarchy.
stars rocks fans
Pop stardom is not very compelling. I'm much more interested in a relationship between performer and audience that is of equals. I came up through folk music, and there's no pomp and circumstance to the performance. There's no, like, 'I'll be the rock star, you be the adulating fan.'
inspirational needs hold-me
I don't need anyone to hold me, I can hold my own.
jobs nice sleep
Maybe you don't like your job, maybe you didn't get enough sleep, well nobody likes their job, nobody got enough sleep. Maybe you just had the worst day of your life, but you know, there's no escape, there's no excuse, so just suck up and be nice.
mother self talking
My mother was a feminist, and she gave me some tools of self-possession and self-empowerment, but now that I have lived here for forty-three years, it's, like, whoa, there is just so much more to do, other than become myself. I'm still talking about it. I still drop the P-word, "patriarchy," on unsuspecting people in everyday conversations.
relationship letting-you-go i-can
I am getting nowhere with you and I can't let you go and I cant get through.
mirrors self-love able
I'd rather be able to face myself in the bathroom mirror than be rich and famous.
inspiring determination self
My idea of feminism is self-determination, and it's very open-ended: every woman has the right to become herself, and do whatever she needs to do.
thinking hands space
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.
real feels-just causes
I make such a good statistic, somebody should study me now; somebody's gotta be interested in how I feel, just cause I'm here, and I'm real.
wise writing air
My writing just kind of exists out there in the air-it's all sort of intended as spoken, or sung, word. So, to commit them to the page...that way was kind of intimidating to me, yet intriguing, to try to reflect the rhythms and connotations and emotions that you can deliver, speaking-wise, on a page.
song writing years
These days, I find I'm applying a little more patience to my process. If I look back on my work, I can see those songs I bailed on could have been better, that had those great two verses and then I kind of coasted from there. These days, if a song is giving me trouble, I put it aside and pick it up later, and keep doing that, for a year if I have to, until it takes shape.
song writing guitar
These days I keep a journal, so I'm constantly sketching down my thoughts, or lines that come to me...ideas for songs. And then when I have a moment to myself, I'll sit down with my guitar and open my journal, and start kind of massaging things together, and see if a song takes shape. Or sometimes, I'll just be hanging out with my guitar and come up with a chord progression or a lick, and that'll sort of sit around for a while waiting to marry itself to some words. So it's sort of haphazard and it's like...junk culture. I go around finding shiny objects and I glue them together laughs.
order lessons clarity
a lesson must be lived in order to be learned and the clarity to see and stop this now that is what i've earned