Rene Marie quotes:

It's kind of condoned in our society: There are things that an abusive mate could get away with with their partner that they could not with a stranger.

Hey, maybe I can sing locally and earn a couple of bucks.

I don't see how a person can be sensuous - unless they're just, you know, following some kind of script - without being vulnerable.

I just kind of tried to stay true to myself.

I think it's OK to compose songs and sing them about questions that we don't have answers to yet.

In an abusive relationship - we'll talk about men and women - women are often restrained, by words or out of fear, from leaving. They will tolerate abuse up to and including being put to death.

I just love music. I love all kinds of music, and I was exposed to it, me and my siblings, from the time we were in utero.

I often compare singing to lovemaking because there's so many similarities.

I think that's the role of an artist, right? To touch someone and make us stretch out just a little bit more.

I think vulnerability and sensuality, they're sides of the same coin.

I've never been the type of singer that can sing in heels and the gown and all this stuff, because I can't get to where I want to go while I'm in that getup.

My ex-husband has been one of my best teachers, and I believe that the areas of our life and the people in our lives that present the most problems to us - they really are our best teachers. They're teaching us lessons that we have to learn anyway, and if we don't accept the lesson from them, there will just be another teacher to step in and take their place.

Once I started singing, I realized it was a language I'd forgotten I could speak.

There's a certain place you want to get to, and in order to do that, you have to be vulnerable.

To be up on stage and interacting with musicians, that was a huge epiphany for me.

When I stop asking questions, something's wrong.

When my husband gives me this ultimatum, "You either stop singing, or you move out," then it became very clear that what I needed to do - not just because I wanted to sing, but because I didn't want to live with anybody who issued ultimatums to me like that - would be to move out.

You have to be willing to look a certain way, and hold your body a certain way, until you get to where you want to go - I'm talking about musically, now.