musicians-from-massachusetts

"Ben Koller is an absolute unit. Remember the first time you heard “Dark Horse”? The “holy shit” moment still resonates on every subsequent listen, as the quickfire drumming kicks off perhaps the strongest A-side of Converge’s career thus far."

"Come and knock on our door We've been waiting for you Where the kisses are hers and hers and his Three's company, too."

"Sunny Day Sweepin' the clouds away On my way to where the air is sweet Can you tell me how to get — How to get to Sesame Street?"

"I believe in little things that you can hardly see like honeycomb and spider webs and starfish in the sea. I believe in little things like icy drops of rain that melt into the morning mist when winds are warm again."

"I believe in little things Like you and me And just how big Little things can be"

"This photo is by Erica McDonald. She doesn’t waste time - she sees, she captures. She is brilliant. She has shot covers for Raven, Ballads, 7, and many images of me over time. Because in the past, male photographers have essentially been pricks pressuring me to disrobe, touching me inappropriately etc., I work with women. Photographers like Jodie Olson (This Fire) and @ebruyildiz (American Quilt) and @merrifairy (Amen) are humble geniuses."

"Jingle bells, Jingle bells, Jingle all the way; Oh! what joy it is to ride In a one horse open sleigh."

"If of these United States I was the President, No man that owed another should ever pay a cent; And he who dunn'd another should be banished far away, And attention to the pretty girls is all a man should pay."

"Tommy: I just wanna see more of you!"

"All we can do is live every single day and do our best to be present with the ones that we love and with everybody that we come in contact with … The timing of everything seems too divine sometimes to ignore."

"I don't consider myself to be a quote-unquote "good girl". I'm not prim and proper and polite. I'm very honest, and I love talking about sex, or people's deviances. I love psychology. I like listening to or talking about any personality traits that are unusual. That's what I like about acting."

"I don't know that I'm actually bipolar, but I definitely have huge mood swings, and I'm definitely passionate about the way I feel. I'm not really lukewarm one way or the other."

"I like to play any character that allows me the freedom to explore it and teach the audience something they didn't know, and show them a journey they identify with … or be inspired, or moved. Anything that touches someone's heart is important for me."

"i am always doing things i can't do. that's how i get to do them."

"so the moral of this week is: if u do something really, really stupid in front of someone ur just getting to know & they still think youre awesome, then you got yourself a friend."

"I'm bruised again, I wear it well, The self-inflicted tale they tell. I singed my hair, I broke my nails. You'd love me then, If all else failed. The night was long and dark and just Another dagger to my trust. I thrust it in until I bleed I wiped my point for you to see. And anyway, It's over now. Nothing left to say. I don't know why, I don't care how, It's over anyway. It's broken in pieces. You've got the space you needed. Too late to try, Just say good-bye It's over anyway."

"My so-called faith went up in flames Till I believed in all your lies, For the life of me I don't know why. They got you wrong, You're not that strong. I don't belong here!"

"You'll say I'm self-destructive — I constructed all this tragedy. Go tell them all it's all my fault You'll tell them I was crazy. And anyway it's over now Nothing left to say."

"hold your head up high to face the past stare it in the teeth question everything you never ask the earth shall drink the meek is there lighting in your veins is there something that remains nothings ever gonna change so take yourself out in the rain life is leadin while you wait waitin for your judgement day"

"damn my intuition here it goes wish i didn’t know the things I know you're backing off from me i saw it happening the moment she came back to you"

"looks like it’s time to walk away looks like my moment here is done your heart is broken in too many pieces and I’m not fighting for crumbs"

"I’m not ready for Christmas don’t need a gift list don’t give a shit how many shopping days are left this holiday season give me one reason i should believe it’s ever gonna change and why should i be merry when every January i come back so very broken hearted I’m not ready for Christmas I think i’ll skip this one and Santa I will see you next year."

"It just occurs to me the Grinch was not so mean he had a point or two I think he’d have liked me."

"I’m done with wrapping boxes buying things that no one wanted trying on my own to save the day while dad plays cards and bro reads verses mom’s in tears between the curses I need a fucking holiday I’m not ready for Christmas."

"and for the falling stars the broken hearts mansions in your mind and all the roads that were lost the signs you missed turns that passed you by maybe it’s not too late to find your way it’s not your place to say what if you can you can go home again"

"and tho you lost your way it’s not too late god knows you damn well tried and all the stones you tossed they’re ripples now waves you left behind they’re leading you back you can go home again"

"isn’t it nice to know that you’re not my consolation prize doesn’t it feel like freedom breathin in and out now isn’t it good to see all the love in someone else’s eyes doesn’t it all make sense that you’re better off without me"

"Look at the girl I did Urban Legends with, my last big hit, in '98. One of the girls in that, Alicia Witt — who was on the TV series, Cybill — she without a doubt did the best work on television last year when she guest-starred on the most difficult show to guest star on, which was The Sopranos. She played a non-Italian mafia type on The Sopranos — she was the best thing in the hour. To me, this girl is outstanding. This girl has movie star potential. Now, she was in Cecil B. Demented. I'm just amazed she's not a much bigger star already — not out of any disappointment in Alicia. But I just can't believe the town hasn't just sort of like scooped her up and made her as much of an "It Girl" as, for instance, Goldie Hawn's daughter or Gwyneth Paltrow, because I think this girl is really — and she's also genuinely funny in a wonderful, sexy, screwball comedy way."

"Arguably the smartest person ever to perform in the genre that gave us Green Acres. Exposed to Shakespeare as an infant — her mother, Diane, a former junior high reading teacher, would read aloud from his plays — Witt was able to recite from Romeo and Juliet and the sonnets at 2. By then, on some cognitive tests she was scoring at the level of a high school senior."

"It was her mother who launched Witt on her unusual trajectory from whiz kid to starlet. Back in 1977, Diane Witt — who, to give her her due as an amazing person, currently has the world's longest hair (documented as 12'8" in the 1994 Guinness Book of Records) — dropped a line to Good Housekeeping. She enjoyed the magazine, she wrote, and noted that her 2-year-old did, too. Housekeeping staff promptly visited and photographed "our youngest reader." Thanks to this bit of exposure, Witt was invited to appear on ABC's That's Incredible, where she played a scene as Shakespeare's Juliet. Working with the cameras set off lightbulbs in Alicia's head. "I loved it," she says. "It was like life, only 10 times more intense." At 7, brought to the attention of director David Lynch, she made her film debut in the sci-fi epic Dune as space princess Alia. She learned her lines in one reading. "It's easy," Witt says. "You memorize the thought process instead of the words." Of course. Dune opened and closed, and Witt stayed in Worcester, racing through her piano studies. She even created her own variations, in the style of Debussy, Chopin and other masters, on Over the Rainbow."

"I sometimes get a funny feeling, that Alicia Witt has to shut down half her cerebellum to have a conversation with me."

"Alicia was angelic … yet she could play Beethoven ferociously or Bartok at a raging tempo."

"She did have an extraordinary childhood. At the age of 1 month, she says, she was talking. At 6 months, she was reading. At the age of 4, she performed a scene from Romeo and Juliet on the Today show and wrote short stories based on the Peanuts characters. "In my fantasy I was always the savior. I would come to 'Peanuts' land and save everybody. Charlie Brown would fall madly in love with me. Peppermint Patty was so jealous.""

"She's very talented in everything she's ever done … [her brother Ian is also] a very talented boy, and I was advanced. But no one has seen anything like Alicia."

"no grand intention no pain to mention just too many days that fade to blue and look how it came out perfect for better would have been for worse if I’d have been the one to settle down that walk with you"

"I don't feel special … I was just full of energy and loved to learn."

"I've always wanted to do my own thing, and my parents allowed me to do what I needed."

"Whatever you've accomplished there's always more to experience."

"I just tend to admire people who go for what they believe in, like David Lynch for example, and just say what goes through their heads, and are not afraid of people not accepting them. I have no respect for people who deliberately try to be weird to attract attention, but if that's who you honestly are, you shouldn't try to "normalize yourself". It's a fine line."

"I'm so much happier now that people seem to find better things to ask me about than all my "accomplishments" from when I was a little girl. I feel like that was so long ago, and so irrelevant to who I am now, that I am glad the focus isn't really on that as much any more."

"When I was a kid, my dream was to be a farmer and marry Charlie Brown. I wanted to rescue him and make him happy. Besides, he was always lusting after "the little redhead girl"."

"Everything was okay, as long as I could dream. Its amazing, really, the difference between having a dream and not having any left that can come true. It's the difference between living and dying."

"I like digging into these characters that are a lot more complex, and there's a lot that isn't apparent on the surface … In a weird way, you can access all that fear and pain. … Nothing makes me happier than when somebody figures out I was in something, and then they'd seen me in something else, and had no idea it was the same person… Then I feel like I've done my job. … I've always loved finding characters that are not always the most likable ones when you first meet them, and finding a way to make them people that viewers will identify with, even against their better judgment."

"Cage's Music of Changes was a further indication that the arts in general were beginning to consciously deal with the "given" material and, to varying degrees, liberating them from the inherited, functional concepts of control."