Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell, CCis a Canadian singer-songwriter and painter. Mitchell's work is highly respected by critics, and she has deeply influenced fellow musicians in a diverse range of genres. Rolling Stone has called her "one of the greatest songwriters ever", and AllMusic has stated, "When the dust settles, Joni Mitchell may stand as the most important and influential female recording artist of the late 20th century". Her lyrics are noted for their developed poetics, addressing social and environmental ideals...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth7 November 1943
CountryCanada
I'm not a pitiable creature. It's just that I suffer very eloquently.
I certainly don't want to be an angry old artist.
I find a lot of poetry to be narcissistic.
I've got 50 different tunings in the guitar.
Rachmaninoff made a musician out of me. His 'Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini' was the piece that sent me into raptures. It spoke to me. To me, it was a tender entreaty for the misunderstood.
I don't like to make fluffy little songs, but now I want to make some light songs.
I couldn't see passion as a bad thing.
My family could only afford to get me the box of eight Crayola crayons, but I craved the one with all 24 colours. I wanted magenta and turquoise and silver and gold.
My parents told me I'd point to a bed of flowers and say 'Pink. Pretty,' before I knew any other words.
I wanted to paint in a folk-artist-y way. My heroes were Van Gogh, Gauguin, Matisse, and Rembrandt. I think Picasso is about as a modern as I got. But I incorporated things that they rejected as well as movements that happened later.
I think I would go further into fine arts, I think, if I were to continue.
I'm a method actress in my songs, which is why it's hard to sing them.
I hang my laundry on the line when I write.
Oh, I am a lonely painter / I live in a box of paints...