Paula Cole quotes:

People have become less discriminating listeners, which is tragic, really. There's a lot of emperor's new clothes out there, whether they're female or male solo acts. That bothers me. It's hard to break through, and it's like climbing Mount Everest if you actually do.

If not for music, I would probably be a very frustrated scientist. It's one way to answer the question, 'What is the meaning of life?' I feel music answers it better.

I think it's important to find the little things in everyday life that make you happy.

I'm a songwriter who's put my childhood memories and teenage angst into songs.

I'm accepting I'm not living that younger, dreamed version of myself in the big city.

I'm used to adversity and working really well in difficult situations. It was hard for me to accept the success.

I like doing the crossword puzzle in the New York Times, not watching E! on TV.

I'm raising my daughter with her grandparents in the picture, and that feels good.

You make me feel like a candy apple, red and horny.

I wanted to be a cheerleader, like my sister was - all the most popular and beautiful girls are cheerleaders and I wanted that, and it demolished this vision of myself. That's when I found the piano, when music saved me; that's when I first attempted to write my own songs.

I was curious and hungry at a young age, and jazz was such a mystery to me, an ocean where you can express yourself in the moment. It represented freedom, it represented wearing wings and going somewhere with music.

The flower has opened, has been in the sun and is unafraid. I'm taking more chances; I'm bold and proud.

I hope and believe we are paving a better future for female artists to come.

Walking is magic. Can't recommend it highly enough. I read that Plato and Aristotle did much of their brilliant thinking together while ambulating. The movement, the meditation, the health of the blood pumping, and the rhythm of footsteps...this is a primal way to connect with one's deeper self.

At the age of 15 months my daughter was diagnosed with very bad asthma, and essentially I put my career on hold for a good eight years.

Being a writer is a very private, internal process. Ultimately I am more the writer, being an introvert.

I've left Bethlehem, and I feel free. I've left the girl I was supposed to be, and some day I'll be born.

For me music is a vehicle to bring our pain to the surface, getting it back to that humble and tender spot where, with luck, it can lose its anger and become compassion again.

I think of my shows as family reunions. I give 100% every time. I just do. It's a huge therapeutic release. Also I love my touring family. And I love my audiences very much.

I like women who can throw a ball and laugh loud and have some spine, and I like men who don't mind cooking dinner.

Just watching my cats can make me happy.

I struggled with being in the public eye, losing my anonymity when my star rose quickly in the late 90's. But I need the challenge of showing up and getting up there to spill my guts and connect with my loyal folks.

Feminists were psyched that I had armpit hair

Feminists were psyched that I had armpit hair.

The older I get, the more I see that there really aren't huge zeniths of happiness or a huge abyss of darkness as much as there used to be. I tend to walk a middle ground

So I'm writing more highly personalized and intellectual music, and I think that's good. It might take longer to find me, but I think that niche is perhaps underserved, so I'm going to serve that.

I'm still trying to find out who Paula Cole is. I always am - and I always will be - my real, inside self, which has no name.

The monsters are in your own head.

When you're a plebeian you want success, and when you're successful you want to be a plebeian again

I'm glad I made a piece of art that can be interpreted so widely. Art is always interpreted subjectively.

But at the age of 44, I sure hope to be a better businesswoman. I want to get the music straight to my fans.

I'd love to act. I feel that it's another naked, mysterious challenge, like jazz. It kind of intrigues me in the same way.

The older I get, the more I see that there really aren't huge zeniths of happiness or a huge abyss of darkness as much as there used to be. I tend to walk a middle ground.

Didgeridoo was something I picked up while I was on tour in Australia with Peter Gabriel in '93. I found out later that it's only meant to be played by men.

I see my albums as working diaries, as living scrapbooks of me and my life.

But looking back, the fact was that I had a couple of big hits too quickly and it was simply too much for an introvert like me to handle.

Far away, to an infinite world I escape. I'm clear and calm, I'm unafraid. Sunless days, in my sheltered milkyway. In Saturn's rings I feel no pain.

Hitler's brothers are on the rise, they're wearing everyday disguises.

I am not the person who is singing I am the silent one inside. . . . I am not my house, my car, my songs They are only stops along my way. . . .

I am searching for the truth. Somewhere, it's in the music.

I don't like to sit and bask in my own awards. Awards represent artistic death to me.

I hope and believe we are paving a better future for female artists to come

I want to sit with my legs wide open and laugh so loud that the whole damn restaurant turns and looks at me.

I wore Nietzsche's eyes. Now that I step back to see, I haven't been me.

I'm glad I made a piece of art that can be interpreted so widely. Art is always interpreted subjectively

I'm used to adversity and working really well in difficult situations. It was hard for me to accept the success

It's me who is my enemy Me who beats me up Me who makes the monsters Me who strips my confidence.

Our planet is a tiny atom in god's kingdom.

Thank God I have music to vent my emotions. I'd be in a prison if I didn't.

The monsters are in your own head

The river was always there inside of me, but I was very shy. I could see that this was my path. I felt destiny in my own music.

Welcome to the church of me.

And she is your holy Mary. And I am so ordinary.