I like songs with a lot of heart and feeling and subtlety.
— Norah Jones
My first two records are so simply constructed. The reason isn't because I wanted to make simple music. It's because I don't really have the chops.
I'm not going to play lead guitar in a concert hall full of people, because I'm going to mess up a lot.
I don't think I'm a great songwriter, but I think I've learned a lot about it, and I don't think there's any one way to do it. I don't think I can control it at all. I can just kind of hope that it happens.
Everyone in my high school was a bit nerdy. We didn't even have a football team.
I'd done recordings, little demos, since I was in college, which I used to get gigs. But I never thought I'd have a record label.
What I was going for in the first two albums I didn't necessarily achieve. Because I was young and because it was my first time out. And the second album was such a 'quickie' sort of 'Let's just get it over with!' But the kind of music I make, there's a lot of subtlety in it. And I think it takes a couple of listens to actually really get it.
There's a lot of personal stuff that can go into songwriting but there's also a lot of dramatization and fictionalization. You have to do that to make a good song.
Nobody was listening when I learned how to play music. But there's something about being on stage, talking to the audience, looking at them and smiling, that's always been difficult for me. I'm a lot more comfortable now, but there are still moments of awkwardness.
Coffee gives me bad breath.
A song will keep going round in my brain and keep me awake.
The pop world is cool, but I never really thought of myself as part of it or wanting to be a part of it because I'm on a label that's not really like that. They're not trying to dress me up, they're not trying to do things like that. I feel like I'm sort of separate from that, actually.
The coolest thing I've gotten to do in the past few years is guest star on Sesame Street.
God bless Ray Charles. It was such an honor to meet him and sing with him and actually just to watch him sing from just two feet away.
I don't try to sound like anyone but me anymore. If something is out of my element, I try to avoid it.
It's true, there's a lot of melancholy in my music. I don't know why, I'm not a melancholy person. I've always been drawn to it. Ever since I was a kid, if I had an album I would play the ballads on repeat.
A lot of my music is slow and subtle. The subtly is what I enjoy about making music.
When something's ending, you go through so many phases, and it can be frustrating. But once you're out on the other side, it's like you can really see all the crazy phases you went through.
If you're a female and you get asked by someone who shoots the most beautiful female scenes to be in their film, it's kind of exciting.
I wasn't very aware of pop music because I attended an arts school. For me, it was all about jazz.
When I moved to New York, I fell head over heels back into country music and probably 'cause I missed something about Texas.
I like barbecuing because it's easy.
All is fair in love and songwriting.
I wasn't a trained Mickey Mouse club performer. I played in jazz clubs and restaurants.
I became a musician so I wouldn't have to get up at 6 in the morning.
Designers send me clothes I wouldn't feel comfortable wearing.
I don't want to be the next big anything. I just want to play for people and that's it.
I've always loved to read. But sometimes I go for a year without reading, because I forget to.
Without a piano I don't know how to stand, don't know what to do with my hands.
A lot of pop people out there are cool, but they overdo it.
I'm a musician because I love it and it's supposed to be fun.
Your limitations create your sound.
I feel like I've been lucky, because I don't feel like I've ever tried to be somebody I'm not. People might disagree.
I love film, and I would love to be a part of something that people universally love as a piece of film. Sure. Of course I would. And I would love to take acting lessons, and see that side of it someday. But I'm a musician.
During my first photo shoot, I was unhappy because they put so much makeup on me and straightened my hair. I've been stubborn ever since.
You know, when you have a father who's pretty well known but you don't see him, the last thing you want to do is start talking about him all the time to people.
I make a good fried chicken.
For me, there's a fine line between being a cheeseball and being a good performer.
I like to be in control of things.
I'm not trying to conquer Hollywood. I love my day job.
You would never catch me in a miniskirt.
Songs are about whatever you want them to be about. For me it might mean something completely different than what it means to you. So I'd say it's about whatever the listener thinks it's about.
I got stood up by the letter Y, he was hanging around with his X.
In college I had a weekend gig at a restaurant, a solo thing that was the best practice I could have ever had. That's where I learned to coordinate my singing and my piano playing.
