Norah Jones quotes:

People will read into what you say no matter what, so it doesn't matter to me.

In college I had a weekend gig at a restaurant, a solo thing that was the best practice I could have ever had. That's where I learned to coordinate my singing and my piano playing.

I love my dad and we have a very good relationship now.

God bless Ray Charles. It was such an honor to meet him and sing with him and actually just to watch him sing from just two feet away.

There are absolutely no problems between me, my dad and my sister. Obviously I grew up with just my mum, but my relationship with my dad is just fine.

I feel like all the songs are little scenes, different angles, of the feelings that come around something ending.

Anyone can look pretty with hair and make-up.

When I moved to New York, I fell head over heels back into country music and probably 'cause I missed something about Texas.

Breaking up is just hard, even if you're the one breaking up. It's not fun. It can be dramatic and complicated. And then you get a little distance and you think, why did it have to be so complicated and dramatic?

I could do without 'cool' publications calling me 'mom jazz.' But I laughed all the way to the bank, baby.

Making records is fun. It's not some big statement. You're allowed to make mistakes.

I'm not going to play lead guitar in a concert hall full of people, because I'm going to mess up a lot.

I'm not planning to jump off a bridge with no bungee.

During my first photo shoot, I was unhappy because they put so much makeup on me and straightened my hair. I've been stubborn ever since.

Designers send me clothes I wouldn't feel comfortable wearing.

Maybe I'm genetically more inclined to music - but the music I make is so far removed from Indian classical music. I grew up in Texas!

I don't like shopping, and I like my clothes to be comfortable.

I think it's important for people who love music to retain physical CDs or even vinyl, because it sounds so great and so much warmer than music over the internet.

Success and the art of making music are two different things for me.

I make a good fried chicken.

Everyone in my high school was a bit nerdy. We didn't even have a football team.

Nobody can tell you you're wrong for writing a song about how you feel - even if you don't really feel that way.

I love film, and I would love to be a part of something that people universally love as a piece of film. Sure. Of course I would. And I would love to take acting lessons, and see that side of it someday. But I'm a musician.

Nobody was listening when I learned how to play music. But there's something about being on stage, talking to the audience, looking at them and smiling, that's always been difficult for me. I'm a lot more comfortable now, but there are still moments of awkwardness.

I'm always going to do that - record and make music.

For me, there's a fine line between being a cheeseball and being a good performer.

I like songs with a lot of heart and feeling and subtlety.

I had very modest expectations when I first moved to New York. I didn't even expect to get a record deal.

My mom and I have always been very close. She is my best friend. She had to make a lot of sacrifices early on in my life to make sure I got to do what I wanted to do.

If you're a female and you get asked by someone who shoots the most beautiful female scenes to be in their film, it's kind of exciting.

I just want to keep making music, recording and trying different things. I don't want to do the same thing all the time.

I try to just make music that I love, and if I believe in it that's all that matters.

I always try to do something different. I don't think I've made the same record over and over.

For a young artist to really make it and make money is a lot more difficult these days.

I've been told the weirdest things: 'Yeah, I love taking a bath to your music!' or 'I gave birth to my daughter while listening to your music.'

You would never catch me in a miniskirt.

I got stood up by the letter Y, he was hanging around with his X.

I don't want to be singing my diary.

I'm not melancholy; I'm a happy-go-lucky person, kind of silly. I like funny things. I have a lot of energy. I tend to like music that's mellow, though.

I don't actually have a lot of discipline. I've worked hard at music. But I feel like you know, I felt like kind of natural at it. I always had a knack for it.

Your limitations create your sound.

It's important to keep indie record stores alive because their unique environments introduce music lovers to things in a very personal way.

I wasn't very aware of pop music because I attended an arts school. For me, it was all about jazz.

If I were a painter I would paint my reverie If that's the only way for you to be with me

I wasn't a trained Mickey Mouse club performer. I played in jazz clubs and restaurants.

A lot of my music is slow and subtle. The subtly is what I enjoy about making music.

A record is just a snapshot of where you are at any time.

The coolest thing I've gotten to do in the past few years is guest star on Sesame Street.

I'm not a great piano player.

It's fun to peek into other people's worlds and see how they go about doing things.

I genuinely don't feel that anything that's been written or said about me has overshadowed my music, and that's the most important thing as far as I'm concerned.

A lot of pop people out there are cool, but they overdo it.

Coffee gives me bad breath.

I'd done recordings, little demos, since I was in college, which I used to get gigs. But I never thought I'd have a record label.

There was an enormous amount of pressure when my first album took off, and I struggled with the speed of everything and the exhaustion from the constant touring.

There's a lot of personal stuff that can go into songwriting but there's also a lot of dramatization and fictionalization. You have to do that to make a good song.

I love eggs so much. I feel like my day hasn't started until I've had eggs. I'm probably gonna die from high cholesterol!

For me making music is part social, part interaction, part collaboration.

I love slow music.

I've always loved to read. But sometimes I go for a year without reading, because I forget to.

Sometimes when you're trying to do a record too close to home, you can get really distracted.

I would love to make a real jazz album someday because I never have. But that's something I'm not in a rush to do.

A song will keep going round in my brain and keep me awake.

All is fair in love and songwriting.

Come away with in the night Come away with me And I will sing you a song Come away with me on a bus Come away where they can't tempt us With there lies I want to walk with you On a cloudy day In fields where the yellow grass grows Knee-high So won't you try to come Come away with me and we'll kiss On a mountain top Come away with me And I'll never stop loving you And I want to wake up with the rain Falling on a tin roof While I'm safe there in your arms So all I ask is for you To come away with me in the night Come away with me.

Don't go chasing after butterflies, when everything you want is right by your side.

I actually write more on guitar than I do on piano,

I became a musician so I wouldn't have to get up at 6 in the morning.

I didn't think it was fair to my music to label me as the daughter of somebody - I didn't think it described me very well and I didn't think it had anything to do with my music.

I don't go about playing music differently. It changes my sleeping schedule and my drinking habits, that's what I like to say.

I don't think I'm a great songwriter, but I think I've learned a lot about it, and I don't think there's any one way to do it. I don't think I can control it at all. I can just kind of hope that it happens.

I don't think it's a bad thing to share how you feel, especially if people can relate to it.

I don't try to sound like anyone but me anymore. If something is out of my element, I try to avoid it.

I don't want to be the next big anything. I just want to play for people and that's it.

I feel like I've been lucky, because I don't feel like I've ever tried to be somebody I'm not. People might disagree.

I had success early on where I'm able to try to keep it fun, and I don't have to do things just for the sake of making a living, which a lot of my musician friends don't have that luxury of course.

I hope there are some audiophiles still out there.

I just want to make my music, and I want it to stand on its own.

I like barbecuing because it's easy.

I like my life. I like my friends. I don't want to go anywhere else.

I like records that flow really well and you don't have to skip around because there's lot of different jumps.

I like to be in control of things.

I really love things with melody.

I remember early on, for instance, having to play wedding gigs, that I hated playing the music. Now I don't have to play music that I don't like. I only get to do what I enjoy, so that's pretty lucky.

I should have a therapist. I have plenty to therapise about.

I think playing music is one of my great joys in life.

I think singing comes most naturally for me. Because it's part of your body - it's a natural thing. You can practice all you want but it's part of your body.

I used to be a jazz snob, believe it or not. I sort of turned my nose up at anything more commercial.

I want to check the record books and see how many fathers and daughters have won Grammys together.

If I make a record I love, then somebody will like it. Maybe not everybody, but that won't matter.

I'm a musician because I love it and it's supposed to be fun.

I'm ballsy. Well, sometimes I'm ballsy.

I'm happy. I feel good about music.

I'm not a very dark person.

I'm not trying to conquer Hollywood. I love my day job.

I'm super-fortunate to have any fans still.

It's funny how you realize what's important, and it's not fame and money, even though it can be really nice. It's happiness and whatever it takes to make you feel happy.

It's hard for me to pry with people I know.

It's not like once you achieve success, you're done, you know. It's like, still enjoy doing what you're doing, that's the key for me.

It's true, there's a lot of melancholy in my music. I don't know why, I'm not a melancholy person. I've always been drawn to it. Ever since I was a kid, if I had an album I would play the ballads on repeat.

I've learned now to talk, act or walk famous. I can still walk around New York, without being molested or bothered. I don't mind autographs - that's part of it. I just do not see the point of being "out there" or behaving outrageously. It will bring nothing but trouble.

Music is fun. It should be fun. And that's the key, I think. Keep it as the thing you love.

My first two records are so simply constructed. The reason isn't because I wanted to make simple music. It's because I don't really have the chops.

On the first album I was saying, that's just one part of me. And then I was thinking, well, am I going to hide the rest of me now just because I'm afraid of something? No. I'm just going to be myself.

People think I'm really melancholy and romantic and all whispery. I'm not at all. I'm very direct.

Songs are kind of alive, I think; once you finish writing them, that doesn't mean that that's it for the song. It can have its own little life, I think.

Songwriting is something I really need to work on. I don't have very many songs but I really love it. I would love to be a great song writer some day.

The pop world is cool, but I never really thought of myself as part of it or wanting to be a part of it because I'm on a label that's not really like that. They're not trying to dress me up, they're not trying to do things like that. I feel like I'm sort of separate from that, actually.

What I was going for in the first two albums I didn't necessarily achieve. Because I was young and because it was my first time out. And the second album was such a 'quickie' sort of 'Let's just get it over with!' But the kind of music I make, there's a lot of subtlety in it. And I think it takes a couple of listens to actually really get it.

When something's ending, you go through so many phases, and it can be frustrating. But once you're out on the other side, it's like you can really see all the crazy phases you went through.

Without a piano I don't know how to stand, don't know what to do with my hands.

You know, when you have a father who's pretty well known but you don't see him, the last thing you want to do is start talking about him all the time to people.

I'm in total control. I write the songs, decide what to sing and how to sing. I even control the recording process. But, with a film, there is no control at all.

Songs are about whatever you want them to be about. For me it might mean something completely different than what it means to you. So I'd say it's about whatever the listener thinks it's about.