I'm a mother, and that's really important. Today, the mother and the musician can sit next to each other. Even when the musician is out there in full swing, the mother doesn't get switched off.
— Tori Amos
My brother was a fantastic cheerleader for my development as a musician. He was almost 10 years older than me and would really push me to develop as a songwriter.
I'm not very social when I'm off the promo trail, because I step into wife and mother mode. It's very reclusive.
I'm very at home working with mythology.
I started playing the piano when I was about two and got a scholarship to the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore when I was five. But I left when I was 11.
A lot of songs are derivative of each other. Sometimes you need to take a departure from what you do to something that's slightly different in order to get inspiration.
Things go wrong all the time; you can't be precious about it.
You have to be clear what your message is and what you're doing. I mean, Miley Cyrus is an amazing talent, and sometimes you kind of just want to say, 'We know you're not Hannah Montana anymore. We know that, my dear. My darling. Now, go be great.'
There is a time and a place for things. Sometimes one needs to put a filter on oneself. That can be a good thing.
Take a different route to the coffee shop to see what you can see and hear. When we get in a routine, we can become zombie-like and shut down. It's about discipline. You have to push yourself.
I think everyone understands grief, the journey it takes us on, whether it's the death of a loved one, the end of a relationship, a disappointment. Some people don't deal with it, the power of it. Some do. Some feel the weight of it and it informs their choices. I've had to open up to grief in different contexts.
Being stylish is about enjoying your life and expressing yourself and your inner light.
I produce the records. I don't hand over control to some really expensive producer who then talks to the record company and then tries to bend me to their will - for commercial purposes.
I'm not like a poker player. I'm not into bluff. My way is to look someone in the eye and tell them the way I'm intending to go. My cards are always on the table.
I don't choose to analyze what I have done and I think that is the right choice, because then I won't be spending my time creating.
When the mothers start to shatter, then everything just comes undone.
When you're in your 20s, there's maybe a little room for you to not be at the top of your artistic game, if you look good on a magazine cover. When you're not on the cover of the magazines anymore, then you realize that the work has to be great.
My father was strict, but he recognised my ability and got a lot of flak from the church for supporting me.
If you think a child is going to be your accessory... it's not like a micro pig. It's not about putting them in front of the television. You need to read to them at night.
The key things are about power and about growing up and realizing as you grow up that there are consequences for the choices you make, especially when you get seduced by power.
When one doesn't want the limelight, but is also creative in developing whatever it is they are, then you can have two equal people that aren't competing against each other. I think when you are in the same field, it's difficult to leave it outside and not compete. Then when the doors are closed; that pervades everything.
My ears are huge. If there's ever a problem with a plane I'm on, they could just put me on the wing and I'll land the sucker.
I like involved projects. I'm driven by the idea of characters and the song-cycle form is similar to a musical.
I was very close to my mother as the youngest of three. She was my playmate.
My parents think I'm better under pressure.
I would love to compose something for dance before I kick the bucket, and I'm not closed-minded about the dance, or the dance company. I would really just love to collaborate on that.
Romance is important to me, and to have a romance with your husband takes a bit of doing. The key is to make sure your partner misses you. That means you have to take yourself away.
I had a very strict upbringing with my dad and was very close to my mum, who was extremely loving.
To me glamour isn't about being sparkly.
There's a side to this industry that nurtures divas who can't write. It's a big business.
I'm a classic emerald green Sixties Jaguar that nobody can own, but my husband is allowed to drive.
It's been a thrilling journey - I have had to really learn that an orchestra is an entity - it's a creature. I have been calling it the dragon and the conductor is the dragon tamer. And you just have to... ride and don't let go and you will be fine.
The world that we all knew before, could wake up in feeling safe... now it seems that everything has been turned upside down.
I can see how the young girls really get hurt when their moms are critical, or vice versa when they're overly critical of their moms. It can be so painful.
I've worked with many powerful men in the music industry.
Parenting is not for everybody. It changes your life. Especially when they're little.
For a song cycle to work, you have to feel these things when you hear them and you either have an emotional reaction to it or you don't. The plotline is something that gets woven together in the back-story.
Not everybody wants to have the same career. I think what's difficult is when you have two people that do something very, very similar and they both, say, want the limelight. That's very tricky.
I have built my world through Native American mythology.
I'm a hard worker. I get my hands dirty.
My mother says I was two-and-a-half when I started playing. My father was a minister, and when he went to church in the morning, she would put on Fats Waller, Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole and Cole Porter records. I'd crawl up on the piano stool, sit on a phone book and play.
Tori's my legal name. My niece and nephews, they all call me Aunt Ellen, because I went by my middle name years ago, before I turned 18.
There are ways to stimulate being prolific, and part of that is making pilgrimages, and being open to listening, changing up the routine.
I don't feel I'm as good a mum as my mum was.
I have never smoked and have always drunk a lot of water, but cleanse, tone and moisturise every day? No way!
Even if everything else is downplayed, I'll wear good shoes.
People assume that all artists make for terrible business people, but I'm in complete charge of my own career.
My father was a minister and so rock music was banned in our house.
My favorite saying is, 'If it's too loud, turn it up.'
I would love to compose something for dance before I kick the bucket, and I'm not closed-minded about the dance, or the dance company.
