“I think anybody who gets to that stage in reality is so beyond self-loathing. If you hate yourself, well, then you're going to turn some of that hatred on the world around you.”

“I was thinking to myself out there — well, you wouldn't think you're anybody else, would you?”

“How can you sleep
How can you turn away
Thinking so cheap?
Some day you're gonna pay!
You're keeping secrets
I can see in your eyes:
Can anybody tell me
Why the big disguise?”

“It's like a book, I think, this bloomin' world,
Which you can read and care for just so long,
But presently you feel that you will die
Unless you get the page you're readin' done,
An' turn another—likely not so good;
But what you're after is to turn 'em all.”

“You're going to get hurt yourself, and badly, if you take everything so hard.”

“The better you learn to take care of yourself, the less you settle for being around people who can't or won't treat you as well as you're accustomed.”

“The odd time something happens and you go into some kind of enchantment (on stage). But you have to work very hard to get that. Most of the time you're just playing and singing the songs, and there's no guarantee that you are going to get anywhere….”

“Do you take pride in your hurt? Does it make you seem large and tragic?… Well, think about it. Maybe you're playing a part on a great stage with only yourself as audience.”

“It's the way you play that makes it. What I say is, for Christ's sake, you don't have to kill yourself to sing. Play like you play. Play like you think, and then you got it, if you're going to get it. And whatever you get, that's you, so that's your story.”

“Jane Whitney: You go way beyond sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll in your performances: you self-mutilate on stage.”