PJ Harvey Quotes

Before I record for real, I know pretty much exactly how I want them to feel.

But even when I do give interviews, I always come across as such a completely different person. It seems like there's no controlling it anyway.

But huge photographs of dead bodies are slightly different. I couldn't find much humor there.

First off, I think nudity is taken differently in America, though they did make a fuss in England, too.

I am someone that follows the news and reads newspapers yet what do you believe and what don't you.

I can only try and reflect the things that it makes dark inside of me and sad, that will come out, but it will come out in a different way other than not just talking in a political fashion.

I did photography, painting, and drawing, but I prefer sculpture. I like it because it's very physical.

I do take enormous interest in what's going on. I try to see whatever I can, whenever I can.

I don't loathe interviews, I'm just one of those people who makes music because I find it difficult to talk.

I find it hard myself to feel justified to sing in a very politically direct way about war or social conditions because I feel so ignorant of a lot of it.

I firmly disbelieve that one has to be a tortured soul to write good music.

I have learnt through doing interviews throughout my life that the way that somebody can write about something can change entirely how it was meant, or what actually happened.

I make tiny wooden people with bits of hair. Puppets and things like that.

I really don't pay too much attention; I don't go out of my way to read any interviews.

I studied art just short of the level where you can earn a degree.

I think a lot of people have an idealistic view - if you grow up in the country, there can't possibly be anything wrong with you.

I think that most art is asking a question or is looking for something, looking for answers and that is what life seems to be about for most people.

I try to see as much dance, theatre and films as I can because all of it feeds me in a way that I need feeding for what I do.

I'm doing quite a lot of painting on stones - little funny fish and animals.

I'm finding my way, and I make mistakes.

Ideas for songs can come from something as simple as a photograph and letting my imagination run wild on an old photograph that I found, or to a film that I have seen or to just most of the time, just daily walking through life and keeping your eyes open.

In the same way, I write some of my more difficult pieces when I'm at very happy stages in my life.

It all surprised me, because I come from a very liberal upbringing, where nudity is a natural part of life.

It varies, I don't think there is any one set way of writing songs or coming up with ideas, it comes in so many ways you know.

It's a bit sad, actually, because I haven't had a chance to put any seeds in the ground this year.

It's nice to see other peoples results of their imaginations and to see what's possible.

Making me into a role model is placing too much importance on what I see as a work in progress.

My mom is a sculptress.

My town was even smaller. Only six hundred people. We didn't have a grocery store.

Obviously, the emotions I want to convey through music are streamed through the way I interpret life.

People have this idea of me being some kind of monster, and that's the complete opposite of who I am.

People want to build musicians into mythical beings.

The way I make music is unique to myself and the way I have lived my life - no one else would tell that story in the same way that I do.

There is a thread connecting you no matter how far away you are from someone and you know I have two or three relationships in my life that are like that.

There is nothing more boring than doing singing exercises.

This is a dangerous thing to do. People pick up on one little thing that you say and never let go.

To think of myself as a role model is extremely flattering, but I could never accept that, because I'm just learning like everybody else.

Well, I'm quite a self-deprecating person.

What we are fed through the media I do not accept, unless you see it with your own eyes you can't trust anything.

When I was young, I had idols that I thought were wonderful. I wanted to be just like them.

When I write - I always write on my own - I demo those songs on a four-track.

Yeah, I mean I am somebody that makes an effort to go and see a lot of exhibitions, painting, drawing, sculpture.

You know if I see a work that really I am very affected by and inspired by then it makes me want to try things with my work that maybe I hadn't considered trying before and I think that is the biggest complement that you can pay somebody.

You know, two people can say exactly the same words, saying the same story, and it would mean something entirely different.