Iris DeMent Quotes

• Most of the music you hear on the radio today is developed for making money. It doesn't feel true or honest. You can feel it in the music.

  Iris DeMent

  Radio, Today, Honest

  "'The Poor Are Treated Like Enemies' An Interview with Iris DeMent". Interview with Richard Phillips, www.wsws.org. April 18, 1998.

  13 Copy quote

• If something bothers me, it bothers me for a long time until I find a way to work it out. Music provided me with a means of working things out.

  Iris DeMent

  Mean, Long, Way

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• We got CEOs making 200 times the worker's pay, but they'll fight like hell against raising the minimum wage.

  Iris DeMent

  Fighting, Minimum Wage, Pay

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• This is how it has been since time began: If you want to make something really worthwhile and true, then you have to suffer for it.

  Iris DeMent

  Suffering, Want, Worthwhile

  "The poor are treated like enemies". Interview with Richard Phillips, www.wsws.org. April 18, 1998.

  4 Copy quote

• I've always written about things that cause me to feel something.

  Iris DeMent

  Causes, Feels, Written

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• And I've been walking 'round with memories way too long.

  Iris DeMent

  Memories, Long, Way

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• For a long time I was interested in being a social worker. In a lot of ways I feel that that's all my music is, trying to help people.

  Iris DeMent

  Long, People, Trying

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• I honestly don't listen to a lot of music - I spend so much time working at my own music.

  Iris DeMent

  Honestly, My Own

  6 Copy quote

• I've always been aware of having feelings that were pretty intense at times. I imagine most people have had that, or they wouldn't be human.

  Iris DeMent

  People, Feelings, Imagine

  4 Copy quote

• I don't describe myself as a Christian or religious, but I like to think that how I live my life is honest.

  Iris DeMent

  Christian, Religious, Thinking

  "The poor are treated like enemies". Interview with Richard Phillips, www.wsws.org. April 18, 1998.

  4 Copy quote

• I don't know what other people are like, I haven't been able to crawl inside anybody else.

  Iris DeMent

  People, Able, Havens

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• Maybe I spent more time dwelling on emotions than some people, and maybe that's why I ended up writing.

  Iris DeMent

  Writing, Dwelling, People

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• I was mainly influenced by the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard, and others like Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash.

  Iris DeMent

  Cash, Bob, Dylan

  "The poor are treated like enemies". Interview with Richard Phillips, www.wsws.org. April 18, 1998.

  6 Copy quote

• I never set out to write songs about the world around me... it just kind of came about as a result of paying more attention to things.

  Iris DeMent

  Song, Writing, Attention

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• Some guy refuses to fight and we call that the sin, but he's standing up for what he believes in and that seems pretty damned American to me.

  Iris DeMent

  Believe, Fighting, Guy

  Song: Wasteland of the Free, Album: The Way I Should

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• Making the record was tons of fun, the most fun I've ever had.

  Iris DeMent

  Fun, Records

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• Writing, overall, has never been what I'd call fun. It's fulfilling. It doesn't come real easy for me.

  Iris DeMent

  Fun, Real, Writing

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• Turn off the TV and start digging around for information that's not from a corporation trying to make money.

  Iris DeMent

  Trying, Digging, Corporations

  "The poor are treated like enemies". Interview with Richard Phillips, www.wsws.org. April 18, 1998.

  4 Copy quote

• My guitar is really tempermental. I don't give up on it though, I'm close to my guitar!

  Iris DeMent

  Giving Up, Don't Give Up, Guitar

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