Suzanne Vega quotes:

In the end, my pursuit of the elusive New York State driver's license became about much more than a divorced woman's learning to drive for the first time.

I loved the atmosphere of the dance studios - the wooden floors, the big mirrors, everyone dressed in pink or black tights, the musicians accompanying us - and the feeling of ritual the classes had.

And I really wanted a driver's license. I was 43, had my learner's permit and had failed the test once already - but that was in Riverhead, on Long Island.

So you eat, you sleep, and then this wonderful child comes out, but you don't feel like you have any control over that process, over her, over her character and who she is.

I think people are sexy when they have a sense of humor, when they are smart, when they have some sense of style, when they are kind, when they express their own opinions, when they are creative, when they have character.

If you have to fight a crowd of boys, it's best to go for the biggest one. That way you won't have to fight them all. The others will see that you mean business and you will win their respect.

How weird it was to drive streets I knew so well. What a different perspective.

I had some fears as a kid, but I was also relatively fearless. Maybe that's a result of living half the time in reality and the other half in fantasy.

Of course, sometimes when you write personally, you are also writing about society, obliquely reflecting topical issues, but not in a way that people would expect you to or in the way that someone trying to make a point would.

I always thought that if I was popular I must be doing something wrong.

You have to defend your honor. And your family.

To me, a feminist belongs in the same category as a humanist or an advocate for human rights. I don't see why someone who's a feminist should be thought of differently.

Writing in other voices is almost Japanese in the sense that there's a certain formality there which allows me to sidestep the embarrassment of directly expressing to complete strangers the most intimate details of my life.

I wouldn't characterize my work, however, as directly political.

I fingerpick a lot because I can get more of a range of feeling from the guitar than I can when I bash away with a pick.

Don't make a threat and then not do it.

Don't uncork what you can't contain

Girls are crazy and mean. They don't fight fair.

I was always inventing characters and making up stories.

It takes as much discipline to be a mother and a wife as it does to do anything else.

Writing in other voices is almost Japanese in the sense that theres a certain formality there which allows me to sidestep the embarrassment of directly expressing to complete strangers the most intimate details of my life.

Mother my friends are no longer my friends And the games we once played have no meaning I've gone serious and shy and they can't figure why So they've left me to my own daydreaming.

To me, a feminist belong in the same category as a humanist or an advocate for human rights. I don't see why someone who's a feminist should be thought of differently.

Writing is always personal in some way but not always in a direct way.

Sometimes I listen to songs by very smart writers who assume that the world is a civil place with certain formalities that people follow, but I don't see things that way. My own experience tells me that life is not like that.

I don't think gender is aesthetically defining for me.

A lot of my writing is not terribly civilized.

A lot of my writing is not terribly civilized. Sometimes I listen to songs by very smart writers who assume that the world is a civil place with certain formalities that people follow, but I don't see things that way. My own experience tells me that life is not like that. That's why I write the way I do.

But I never want to get to the point where I write a safe song or one that represents my sense of a subject in order to appear civilized.

I didn't go out looking for fights as a kid, but if it was necessary, I'd fight. Fighting was a daily thing where we lived.

I dont think gender is aesthetically defining for me.

I like to write about things that are extreme in some form. I like to write about something I feel I have to write about.

I still consider myself a feminist.

I still feel conflicted because I don't always get to spend as much time with my daughter as I'd like, given my work.

I think that if you have a strong narrative, if the idea of the song can be boiled down to the basics, it won't change that much.

I was the oldest child, and both my parents worked, so I had a great deal of responsibility from a very young age.

I wasn't afraid of going places or doing new things. I would do just about anything or go anywhere. I'd get a notion in my mind and just follow it.

I'd like to meet you In a timeless placeless place Somewhere out of context And beyond all consequences.

If language were liquid, it would be rushing in. Instead here we are in a silence more eloquent than any word could ever be.

It's striking how commercially viable that impulse for instant intimacy is right now, especially in songs and writing.

Kindness to me is only powerful if it has the cruel streak behind it. If someone is kind all the time under all circumstances, they're just simple-minded. Kindness is only worth something if you have the cruel streak to back it up.

Last year's troubles, They shine up so prettily, They gleam with a lustre they don't have today.

My intellect has always been more responsible than my emotions for how I respond to the world.

My mother wanted me to understand that as a woman I could do pretty much whatever I wanted to, that I didn't have to use sex or sexuality to define myself.

My name is Luka I live on the second floor. I live upstairs from you, yes, I think you've seen me before.

Solitude stands by the window She turns her head as I walk in the room I can see by her eyes she's been waiting Standing in the slant of the late afternoon

Some girls are taught to be sexy.

That said, I've never thought the fact that I'm a woman was important to my work.

The thing that is most interesting about people is the way they are when no one is looking at them or the way they are when they are in private.

There are no rules in fights with girls. Just hurting.

Today I am a small blue thing Like a marble or an eye

When I was pregnant, I felt filled with life, and I felt really happy. I ate well, and I slept well. I felt much more useful than I'd ever felt before.

Yes I think I'm okay, walked into the door again.