India Arie Quotes

May I make a suggestion, hoping it is not an impertinence? Write it down: write down what you feel. It is sometimes a wonderful help in misery.

I almost never cry, and it's something I don't like about myself. I sometimes try and make myself cry. Sometimes, when I'm in pain, I say if I could just cry it would make it so much easier.

I start with something that makes me angry or confused, and then I write about it. It's a form of self-help.

Writing for me is definitely a form of ventilation - a way for me to cope and deal with emotions. I think it is for any writer.

I hit 'record' whenever I'm going through a really hard time. I don't listen to it for a couple of days, so I have some perspective. If it's too personal to share, and I feel like would alienate the listeners, then I usually don't share that stuff.

For a long time, I couldn't tell somebody how I felt or I couldn't talk about my problems because I felt like I was complaining. Writing would help me or it would be like, I can't tell you how I feel, but I can play you a song.

It's occurred to me I need to laugh at myself more, and that I don't need to be some sad folk singer all the time. I don't want to be the queen of pain.

It can be really powerful to write something when you're sad.

I can't say that I fully relate to things that I play. Sometimes it's nice to spend half the day crying; then you don't have to do it in real life.

My song-writing has always been just about my life - usually my worst moments.

Everything I was feeling, all the hurt and the pain and the emotion I was going through, I put into my music.

I remember keeping a lot of journals and diaries and trying to form a complete thought just based off of those immediate, raw feelings. If anything, I was conscious about how I just always wanted to be as honest as possible, no matter how vulnerable it would make me seem.

The reason I write is that I'm not in dialogue with my emotions; writing puts me in touch with myself.

One sheds one's sicknesses in books - repeats and presents again one's emotions, to be master of them.

Playing is just about feeling. Playing isn't necessarily about misery. Playing isn't necessarily about happiness. But it's just about letting yourself feel all those things that you have already on the inside of you, but you're all the time trying to push them aside because they don't make for polite conversation or something.

People always ask me, 'Why do you only write about heartbreak?' I think I only write when I'm broken, so that's just what happens. It makes me feel better, but having some distance helps.

Writing is a type of therapy for me. I'm always trying to break down what happened, and why I felt a certain way.

I feel like listening to sad songs are a way of narrating your life and confirming your identity.

I write instead of going to the shrink!

I started dealing with my emotional pain by writing. I always had been a writer, but just not songs. Saying things on paper that I would never, ever say, and saying things to myself, admitting things to myself, about myself and my personality, just putting it on paper, is how I deal with emotional pain.

It is painful to relive things that have caused emotional crises or whatever and find ways to express that musically.

I love to cry. It's great.

I don't need therapy. I'm not going to see a therapist; comedy acts as my therapy. I put my problems out there. I talk about them. I talk about everything before anybody has a chance.

I don't keep a journal anymore. I did when I was younger, and I think its good for young girls to try and express what they are feeling on paper; it's cathartic.

There's no better way to process pain than to write.