Natalie Merchant Quotes

57 Sourced Quotes

I want to thank you
for so many gifts
you gave with love and tenderness
I want to thank you
I want to thank you
for your generosity
the love and the honesty
that you gave me

Natalie Merchant
What a cold and rainy day
where on earth is the sun hid away?

Natalie Merchant
I grew up as a TV baby, with my TV babysitter, up until I was about 10. Then my mother just ripped the thing out of the wall and put it in a closet, and we didn't watch it. I have that sort of ability to become addicted to it. And I'm just so fascinated by it once I turn it on, I'm not even that aware what's there. I'm just watching it. So I don't ever turn it on. I get my news from the newspaper. I don't want to watch the Hollywood news product on TV... There's no other piece of furniture in my home I'd stare at for three hours at a time, so I try not to do it to the TV.

Natalie Merchant
People struggle, people fight
for the simple pleasures in their lives
but trouble comes from everywhere
it's a little more than you can bear

Natalie Merchant
The color of the sky as far as I can see is coal gray
lift my head from the pillow and then fall again
with a shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather
a quiver in my lips as if I might cry

Natalie Merchant
See them walking, if you dare
if you call that walking
stumble, stagger, fall and drag themselves
along the streets of heaven

Natalie Merchant
I think many people have been made curious about Henry Darger because of the song on my album Motherland. Henry Darger (1892-1973) was the author and illustrator of what could possibly be the longest unfinished fictional work of all time. His towering hand-bound manuscript of 17,000 pages was found in this obscure retired hospital janitor's apartment after his death. Henry worked in obsessed isolation for six decades on his saga entitled, The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion.

Natalie Merchant
Don't spread the discontent
don't spread the lies
don't make the same mistakes
with your own life

Natalie Merchant
Ophelia was a circus queen
the female cannonball
projected through five flaming hoops
to wild and shocked applause...

Natalie Merchant
Where in hell can you go
far from the things that you know
far from the sprawl of concrete
that keeps crawling its way
about 1,000 miles a day?

Natalie Merchant
Threats like, "if you don't mind I will beat on your behind"
"slap you, slap you silly" made me say,
"o, what's the matter here?"

Natalie Merchant
People see me
I'm a challenge to your balance
I'm over your heads
how I confound you and astound you

Natalie Merchant
Contempt loves the silence
it thrives in the dark
with fine winding tendrils
that strangle the heart
they say that promises
sweeten the blow
but I don't need them
no, I don't need them

Natalie Merchant
Ophelia's mind went wandering
you'd wonder where she'd gone
through secret doors
down corridors
she'd wander them alone

Natalie Merchant
I know that it will hurt
I know that it will break your heart
the way things are
and the way they've been
and the way they've always been

Natalie Merchant
I don't listen to anything on the radio but NPR and occasional oldies programs. I can't comment on the content or format of most commercial radio but I have read the statistics about the step-by-step deregulation of FCC rules that has allowed monopolies like Clear Channel to buy up massive shares of the airwaves. This has damaged our business (music) and our culture (American). The internet is offering bold alternatives but a transistor radio is only $25.00 and not everyone is hooked up through a computer and high speed connection.

Natalie Merchant
People ruthless, people cruel
see the damage that some people do
full of hatred, full of pride
it's enough to make you lose your mind

Natalie Merchant
Don't talk, I will listen
don't talk, you keep your distance
I'd rather hear some truth tonight
than entertain your lies

Natalie Merchant
If I could calm or restrain you
for the sake of pity
save the pistol
save the cynic's tongue
save the cool white stare
treat me to an honest face sometime

Natalie Merchant
Where is the halo
that should glow 'round your face
and where are the wings that
should grow from your shoulder blades?

Natalie Merchant
Motherland cradle me
close my eyes
lullaby me to sleep
keep me safe
lie with me
stay beside me
don't go, don't you go

Natalie Merchant
Take a look at my body
look at my hands
there's so much here
that I don't understand

Natalie Merchant
O, I need
the darkness
the sweetness
the sadness
the weakness
I need this

Natalie Merchant
Ophelia was a cyclone, tempest
a god damned hurricane
your common sense
your best defense
lay wasted and in vain

Natalie Merchant
Once I came close to that most elusive fire
burning with hopeless love and desire
but it was just about the worst thing that I could do
it was just about the worst thing I could do

Natalie Merchant
I've walked these streets
in the mad house asylum
they can be
where a wild eyed misfit prophet
on a traffic island stopped
and he raved of saving me

Natalie Merchant
Take one last look behind
commit this to memory and mind
don't miss this wasteland, this terrible place
when you leave
keep your heart off your sleeve

Natalie Merchant
Hey Jack Kerouac
I think of your mother
and the tears she cried, she cried for none other
than her little boy lost in our little world that hated
and that dared to drag him down
her little boy courageous
who chose his words from mouths of
babes got lost in the wood
hip flask slinging madman, steaming cafe flirts
they all spoke through you

Natalie Merchant
Newspapers ask intimate questions
want confessions
they reach into my head
to steal the glory of my story

Natalie Merchant
I'm tired of the excuses everybody uses
he's their kid I stay out of it,
but who gave you the right to do this?

Natalie Merchant