Ani DiFranco Quotes

With a polite smile, I decided she was insane.

I don’t respect your statement because of the anger that came with it

I am not being obtuse. You are being paranoid.

You know people. Most of them don’t hear anything. Those who hear - don’t listen. A few who listen - don’t understand. And those who could understand… they don’t care.

Anger, and the self-righteousness that is both the cause and consequence of anger, tends to be easier on the psyche than personal responsibility.

Everybody kind of perceives me as being angry. It's not anger, it's motivation.

I think, for one, we have to really accept that anger is a normal human emotion that can be a positive force for change.

If you're upset by something I said, you have bigger problems than you think.

One of the illusions that we live by is that we can really know anybody else, and we're often surprised by traits in people that we thought we knew very well. The struggle to overcome loneliness, which is sort of our universal burden, leads us to leap to conclusions about who other people are.

I've learnt to not look that deeply into what people say as it's mostly a reflection of themselves.

No, Mom. I said fine." "It's just your tone." Ah, yes- the tone. The nasty traitor.

When you're frustrated with people, when they've made you angry, it just may be because you haven't given them enough time.

Experience informs us that the first defence of weak minds is to recriminate.

I just realized that we're facing here is an empathy gap. And this was just another way to generate conversation about something that nobody wanted to look at.

I tell myself that I know you, and then when I think about it, I realize that I don't.

You'll never regret writing any letter out of love. However, it's a good idea to reread anything you've written in anger.

Most people are not prepared to have their minds changed, and I think they know in their hearts that other people are just the same, and one of the reasons people become angry when they argue is that they realize just that, as they trot out their excuses.

There's no more usual basis of union than mutual misunderstanding.

My self-absorption warms me; yours boils me.

I just remember that whenever I got really mad or passionate, like in an argument, people would laugh, and I'd be dead serious. It would happen a lot. So it was like, Gee, I've got something here.

And the seriousness with which the other party takes my words always raises the doubt whether I have taken them seriously enough myself.

We are different. We are equal in every way but our voices are important to each other and our need to want to listen to each other and try to understand, because sometimes we are so difficult to understand. Men to understand us, and we to understand men. And we don't. We don't connect the way we should.

I'd rather deal with anger than apathy.

I wouldn't say that I have overcome opposition so much as I have tried to understand it. The lash of judgment carries a wounding sting, and there's a deeply instinctual tendency to want to respond in kind. I am not proud that my thoughts were blackened with vile opinions about the nature of those who were attacking me.

If someone says, "Katie, you are out of order," over something I've said, or, "Katie, you are wrong," if I defend myself or justify myself, then I have just started the war.