Before you can make good music, you just have to shut up. Then the music can say what it has to say.
Kristin Hersh

Good taste - that's all you really need when you're playing an instrument.
Kristin Hersh

I don't have the inclinations that other people seem to have as far as the business is concerned.
Kristin Hersh

I don't like the idea of famous people.
Kristin Hersh

I don't like what the radio plays for the most part.
Kristin Hersh

I don't mind what the market is, but why is it vapid? If they're such a bunch of idiots, why don't you show them good music instead? They're not going to know the difference.
Kristin Hersh

I felt like it was a great secret when I found out that I could be in my 30s.
Kristin Hersh

I grew up in a commune where no one considered me female, particularly.
Kristin Hersh

I guess I'll just slip into the studio after the next time with the Muses, and then just keel over and die.
Kristin Hersh

I have to play as much of the game as I allow myself to get the music heard. But it's not unlike the rest of the world, so I'm not as up in arms about it as I could be.
Kristin Hersh


I would go to radio stations and they were supposed to be interviewing me and playing my record and they would say, We're playing too many women right now, we can't play your record.
Kristin Hersh

I'm beginning to think I have two years encountering sexism without really realising it.
Kristin Hersh

I've always chosen my band members based on their sense of humor. It might sound stupid, but it means not only are they fun to live with on a tour bus for years, but humor implies intelligence.
Kristin Hersh

If you're the band leader you ask more of yourself than anyone else, so they tend to raise the bar for me.
Kristin Hersh

Men are allowed to write songs about people and women are allowed to write songs about women.
Kristin Hersh

Most of the younger people I knew didn't seem to have a handle on things; they hadn't found their place, they didn't understand how the world works, they didn't understand how to treat other people, and they didn't know how to stop thinking about themselves.
Kristin Hersh

MP3's are perfect.
Kristin Hersh

My brother and I were meditating before we were 6 years old, having to stare at the wall and chant.
Kristin Hersh

My parents didn't treat me as if there was anything in the world I couldn't do, except be unkind.
Kristin Hersh

Nirvana was pop. You can have distorted guitars and people say it's alternative, but you can't break out of pop music's constructs and still get extensive radio play and media coverage.
Kristin Hersh