Joan Baez > Quotes

“If it's natural to kill, how come men have to go into training to learn how?”
― Joan Baez

“Action is the antidote to despair.”
― Joan Baez

“You don't get to choose
how you're going to die.
Or when.

You can only decide
how you're going to live.
Now.
”
― Joan Baez

“Only you and I can help the sun rise each coming morning. If we don't, it may drench itself out in sorrow.

You special, miraculous, unrepeatable, fragile, fearful, tender, lost, sparkling ruby emerald jewel, rainbow splendor person. It's up to you.”
― Joan Baez

“I went to jail for 11 days for disturbing the peace; I was trying to disturb the war.”
― Joan Baez

“I've never had a humble opinion. If you've got an opinion, why be humble about it?”
― Joan Baez

“Peace might sell, but who's buying?”
― Joan Baez

“Maybe that afternoon was the closest I ever felt to Bob: his eyes were as old as God, and he was fragile as a winter leaf.”
― Joan Baez, And A Voice to Sing With: A Memoir

“You don't get to choose how you're going to die. Or when. But you can decide how you're going to live now.”
― Joan Baez

“It seems to me that those songs that have been any good, I have nothing much to do with the writing of them. The words have just crawled down my sleeve and come out on the page.”
― Joan Baez

“I was born gifted. I can speak of my gifts with little or no modesty, but with tremendous gratitude, precisely because they are gifts, and not things which I created, or actions about which I might be proud.”
― Joan Baez, And A Voice to Sing With: A Memoir

“I asked him what made us different, and he said it was simple, that I thought I could change things, and he knew that no one could.”
― Joan Baez, And A Voice to Sing With: A Memoir

“God respects me when I work. He loves me when I sing. Tagore”
― Joan Baez, And A Voice to Sing With: A Memoir

“The only thing that's been a worse flop than the organization of non-violence has been the organization of violence.”
― Joan Baez

“The only thing that’s been a worse flop than the organization of nonviolence has been the organization of violence.”
― Joan Baez

“Well I'll be damned
Here comes your ghost again
But that's not unusual
It's just that the moon is full
And you happened to call
And here I sit
Hand on the telephone
Hearing a voice I'd known
A couple of light years ago
Heading straight for a fall

As I remember your eyes
Were bluer than robin's eggs
My poetry was lousy you said
Where are you calling from?
A booth in the midwest
Ten years ago
I bought you some cufflinks
You brought me something
We both know what memories can bring
They bring diamonds and rust

Well you burst on the scene
Already a legend
The unwashed phenomenon
The original vagabond
You strayed into my arms
And there you stayed
Temporarily lost at sea
The Madonna was yours for free
Yes the girl on the half-shell
Could keep you unharmed

Now I see you standing
With brown leaves falling all around
And snow in your hair
Now you're smiling out the window
Of that crummy hotel
Over Washington Square
Our breath comes out white clouds
Mingles and hangs in the air
Speaking strictly for me
We both could have died then and there

Now you're telling me
You're not nostalgic
Then give me another word for it
You who are so good with words
And at keeping things vague
'Cause I need some of that vagueness now
It's all come back too clearly
Yes I loved you dearly
And if you're offering me diamonds and rust
I've already paid”
― Joan Baez

“I've never had a humble opinion. If you've got an opinion, why be humble about it?”
― Joan Baez

“because of my deep-seated opinion that war itself is a crime; that the killing of one child, the burning of one village, the dropping of one bomb sinks us into such depths of depravity that there’s no use bickering over the particulars.”
― Joan Baez, And A Voice to Sing With: A Memoir

“and you know the first thing Dylan did when they started talking about how much money he could make? He went over in a corner by himself, and started scribbling down a list of who his friends were, because if he was gonna be rich, he’d have to know.”
― Joan Baez, And A Voice to Sing With: A Memoir

“I first saw Bob Dylan in 1961 at Gerde’s Folk City in Greenwich Village. He was not overly impressive. He looked like an urban hillbilly, with hair short around the ears and curly on top.”
― Joan Baez, And A Voice to Sing With: A Memoir

“You don't get to choose how you're going to die or when. But you can decide how you're going to live now”
― Joan Baez

“I decided to stay in school as a act of protest against misleading propaganda.”
― Joan Baez, And a Voice to Sing With

“He was rarely tender, and seldom reached out to anticipate another’s needs, though occasionally he would exhibit a sudden concern for another outlaw, hitchhiker, or bum, and go out of his way to see them looked after. He was touching and infinitely fragile. His indescribably white hands moved constantly: putting a cigarette almost to his mouth, then tugging relentlessly at a tuft of hair at his neck, inadvertently dumping the cigarette ashes in dusty cavalcades down his jacket.”
― Joan Baez, And A Voice to Sing With: A Memoir

“Twelve years later, when I finally met and became friends with Sara, we talked for hours about those days when the Original Vagabond was two-timing us. I told Sara that I’d never found Bob to be much at giving gifts, but that he had once bought me a green corduroy coat, and had told me to keep a lovely blue nightgown from the Woodstock house. “Oh!” said Sara, “that’s where it went!”
― Joan Baez, And A Voice to Sing With: A Memoir

“His humor was dry, private, and splendid. Sometimes he would start to chuckle. A little at a time, his lips would move from a genuine smile to a pucker. Then, instantly, he would tighten them back in, until a tiny convulsion of laughter would bring them back to the smile, and sometimes, a full grin followed by laughter.”
― Joan Baez, And A Voice to Sing With: A Memoir

“Now you're telling me
You're not nostalgic
Then give me another word for it
You who are so good with words
And at keeping things vague
'Cause I need some of that vagueness now
It's all come back too clearly
Yes, I loved you dearly
And if you're offering me diamonds and rust
I've already paid”
― Joan Baez

“You don't get to choose how you're going to die, or when. You can only decide how you're going to live. Now!”
― Joan Baez

“I'm scared. I think what it means is that you'll be the rock 'n' roll king, and I'll be the peace queen.”
― Joan Baez

“The story of Bangladesh
Is an ancient one again made fresh
By blind men who carry out commands
Which flow out of the laws upon which nation stands
Which say to sacrifice a people for a land

("Song of Bangladesh")”
― Joan Baez

“Writing is like love, it can’t be forced or it dies in its own process. Writing is like love, it can’t be forced or it becomes cement in a tube of toothpaste.”
― Joan Baez, When You See My Mother, Ask Her to Dance: Poems