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QUOTES:
Straight From Shania:
"All I ever intended was to make a living at what I do. Everything I've achieved since then is above and beyond."
"I find that the very things that I get criticized for, which is usually being different and just doing my own thing and just being original, is the very thing that's making me successful."
"The only reason that you do visual is solely for the visual. That's the only reason. It doesn't sell your music for you."
"That all seems like another lifetime ago, so far away, but it's never that far removed that I couldn't do it again. And there's a comfort there. I think if you are ever in a desperate situation and you get through it, you have a confidence in life that you would otherwise not have. I realize that no matter what I ever lose, I'll be able to manage." (on the death of her parents and raising her two younger siblings alone)
"Yes, you can lose somebody ovenight, yes, your whole life can be turned upside down. Life is short. It can come and go like a feather in the wind."
"During the hardship of my childhood, Dolly Parton was such a staple of my life ... And so to have her there, it was just really weird and it was very emotional. It was a personal moment, that's what it was, and it was on TV." (Shania on crying on Oprah during an appearance with Dolly Parton)
"I used to think anyone who lived in a brick house and didn't have to cut coupons to go to the grocery store was rich. I think, deep down, I always have that anxiety that I might be poor again."
"I would have no breakfast and nothing to eat at lunchtime, I would be at school, just sitting there famished when everyone was opening up their ham sandwiches. It was humiliating, so I would go to the music room and play.,"
"If it does stand out, then I guess it's a compliment, but I just wear whatever feels comfortable." (on her "skin-tight, midriff-bearing" outfits)
"Mine was pretty unforgettable. I'm kind of old-fashioned, so I was never really into the do-it-at-a-party-in-a-side-room thing. I wasn't drinking, it was well thought out, and I was like, "Okay, now I'm gonna experiment." And it was enjoyable." (when asked about her first time/losing her virginity) - FHM (UK), September 1999
"I think it's when I get out of the tub. I know a lot of girls feel this way - you've just had a bath and you get out and your skin is fresh and you've stuck your hair up without even looking. That's when you look the best. I don't get it - you just get out of the bath, look in the mirror and go, "Wow! I look great!" But you're not going anywhere - you're just going to bed! So you must stroll around naked if you're that pleased with yourself...I do! I never used to - I was never comfortable with myself that way, but I'm a lot less critical now. It's a great time of the day - when there's no one around." (when asked when she feels most sexy) - FHM (UK), September 1999
"I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed because it would have to be my sweats and a pair of flip-flops. I'm not into fancy clothes most of the time. But I like to feel like a woman - I feel sexy in a plain white T-shirt with nothing underneath. My husband disagrees. He thinks nude is sexy. He likes me naked. Still, I like the white T-shirt." (on her favorite thing to wear)
"There's no way that I would go nude in front. I don't think under any circumstances!" (on posing nude)
"It isn't revealing at all. In fact, it's even less revealing than if I was in a bathing suit top. There's zero cleavage. There's absolutely nothing showing." (on her famous Rolling Stone cover shot)
"I don’t think I’m ugly, I just think I’m overrated on the cutie factor."
"I don't want my body to be a distraction from my talent or my brain."
"So many people bare their midriffs, I don't know why mine is such an issue."
"I refuse to play down the way I look in order to be taken seriously as an artist, I mean if I had an office job, I wouldn't show up for work baring my midriff, But this is entertainment, I don't want to be 50 years old and thinking I should have enjoyed it while I had it."
"I'm just finally as an adult in my thirties being comfortable with the fact I'm female, and if I bounce when I walk then that's just life. It doesn't mean you're showing off and it doesn't give people the right to touch you because you do have breasts."
"I don't think I'm ugly, I just think I'm overrated on the cutie-factor." (on her looks)
"If you saw me the way I normally am, you wouldn't think I was so beautiful - I don't know what you would think." (on her looks)
"If I'm in a bathing suit, I won't walk around without something over it. If I had Madonna's body, I (wouldn't cover up) but I don't. And I probably never will because I'm not dedicated enough." - SELF, March 2006
"I don't fit anywhere, I fit with you guys.'' (on her fans)
"I'm not just a lap dancer afterall..." (after winning the 1999 CMA Entertainer Of The Year award)
"It's the first time I've ever worn a short skirt. Dressing up is the fun part. I like looking good and I enjoy it." (1999 Grammys)
"I'm basically a bar singer, I am a bar singer who ended up on a concert stage." (backstage after her performance at the 2002 CMA Awards)
"Well, he's about 6 feet tall, blond, blue eyes, he's a very sweet sweet man." (on her husband, Robert John "Mutt" Lange)
"Just one day we hugged each other. But it was such a different kind of hug and that was actually when we knew. It was a very sweet, honest moment. Looking at him the day I fell in love and looking at him the day before? Two different things." (on falling in love with Mutt)
"We teach Eja, look it, "I don't want you to kick that cow and I don't want to eat him either." So, "don't kick the cow and don't eat the cow." Don't hurt the animals." (on Eja being a vegetarian) - from "Cityline" interview, 11/17/05
"...I think that if anything ever happens to Mutt or Eja, that'll just be the end of me. Just put me in a straitjacket. I won't get through it. {Laughs} If anything happens to my husband or my child, I won't get through it. I just love my husband so much. He's like the most special person. He is half of me; Without him I would be half a person. I really would be. You might has well just cut off my arms and legs" - Redbook, 2002
Shania's comments seem to portray a laid-back approach. Normally in charge, Shania allowed Mutt to choose their child's name. Eja is pronounced"Asiah" and means "Angel." "It is East Indian-influenced. It was short; it was interesting; and Mutt picked it. I can't believe it! I'm such a control freak, usually. I thought for sure I was going to pick the name." - Redbook, 2002
"Now with our son, Eja, there is so much love in our family. He is just like Mutt; open, loving and warm. I'm not like that. I'm not as easy to reach all the time. They're good for me, good for my soul." - Marie Claire, 2002
"He's a humble guy and basically he doesn't want to be a star. He just wants to be a person who makes the music. (on her husband)
"Back then , there were no romantic notions. I always figured he was another fat record producer with long greying hair in a ponytail. I was very surprised when I met this neat looking blond with long curly hair. Although he said he was never getting married again, when I came along there was just no avoiding it. We were just so obviously destined to be together" (on before she met Mutt) - Marie Claire, 2002.
"I met Mutt at fan fair, Mutt is a big fan of country music. When I first went to his house to write with him, he had the biggest country music collection I'd ever seen." (on Mutt's passion for country music)
"It was just like a dream. I could have ended up with an album that's not all that different from anything else coming out of Nashville. Mutt made the difference. He took these songs, my attitude, my creativity, and colored them in a way that is unique." (on The Woman In Me)
"He never comes with me I don't think he ever will, and I totally understand where he comes from. He's a humble guy and basically he doesn't want to be a star. He just wants to be a person who makes the music. People write that we're getting divorced but nothing could be further from the truth. We're a very happy couple. There are no inhibitions between us whatsoever." (on Mutt staying out of the spotlight)
"Definately not Ashton Kutcher or Brad Pitt. I wouldn't want to be stuck with someone I fancied because I'd be intimidated and shy and would blush a lot. I'd choose someone like Hitler. I'd sure like to pick his brains. What was that guy thinking?" (when asked who she would most like to be stuck in a lift with) - Mcelebs interview - UK, 2003.
"The 'no sex' marriage thing. That is not true." (on the most outrageous rumor she's ever heard about herself)
"I'd rather clean my toilet than go to a show-business party."
"I learned tons about the meaning of service there." (on working at McDonald's in Timmins as a teen)
"I really feel like life will dictate itself. You should allow it to unfold as naturally as possible. Just go with the flow. When you're really desperate, you say a few prayers and hope for the best. That's the way I've always lived my life."
"I'm a music nut, not a fame nut." - SELF, March 2006
"Writing is very much a playground - an artistic playground. It's the most fun thing I do."
"I love to write stories. Songwriting is my favorite part of what I do. I like to give every song its own personality and attitude and to sing each one in its own style."
"Music is for our lives, it is something we live with and live by......I can write a song but you can interpret it any way you want and its yours! It's personal, it's yours to have and we give that and I guess that is probably what we get back the most, the fact that other people make it their own and that means so much" - "Oprah: After The Show", 2003
"I was scared sh**less. I had terrible stage fright. My parents forced me to perform, which in the long run was the best thing, because I was quite a recluse," she admits. "If not for them I'd still be singing in my bedroom." - Country Weekly - "Shania's Early Years" article, 1/2/06
"I don't have to worry about what people are thinking and what's going on in the industry. I don't want that stuff to influence what I'm doing. Because I think it stifles you creatively. I don't want to have to care too much about that. All I care about is what the fans think. It's really all I care about, honestly."
'No. I really don't care.' I make music and that's what I do. And, of course, I want it to be successful, but I'm not looking at the scale and going, 'Who's beating me or whatever.' So there's just different types...." "I, definitely, I'm in my own race. I don't have that nature. It just breeds jealously because then you're a sore loser. And how can you lose in music anyway? It's all a matter of opinion. There's no losing or winning. You put out your music and that's what your music is." (on winning aand competition)
"I can see on their faces what the songs mean to them. I'm affected by music, when I sit and listen I'm high by it, so when I see I'm affecting them the same way, I really feel I've done what I came to do." (on performing for fans at concerts)
"There is a typical Shania attitude in the lyric, a definite female confidence. It's all about a girl who knows what she wants, she not only knows how to get it, but she's going to get it good." (talking about "I'm Gonna Getcha Good!")
As for the purist naysayers, Twain sneers playfully: "As if i care ..."
"Look, I know I push the country music envelope, but so have most of the country artists I love — Dolly Parton, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson. the purists didn't like them at first either. I'm not a purist. I'm just trying to find a place where my music fits."
"It makes me very excited to know that I might be in someone's record collection who has no other country records. And then at the same time, I'm in another record collection of people who just listen to country music and they wouldn't dare listen to anything else. They both have my record. I'm very flattered by that. Isn't it great that music can cross those boundaries?"
"I really hope my peers appreciate and respect what I'm doing."
"It's so easy to get flattered by everything that's going on around you. And it's okay to be flattered, but it's not okay to lose a true sense of humility. And it's hard. Sometimes you're trying to build your confidence and confidence comes from ego. In order to be really confident, and do a good job, it's kind of an ego thing. So, how do you do that and stay humble at the same time? ... I think humility is the most important thing for me to remember."
"I'm never at my best on television. There's a row of cameras between you and the audience, and it's very weird, very confusing."
"I'm more private than people realize. I'm not that easy to get to know."
"Yes, you can lose somebody overnight, yes, your whole life can be turned upside down. Life is short. It can come and go like a feather in the wind."
"My goal is to appeal to as many people as I can. I'm not looking to leave country, but I do want to have more international success."
"It's important to give it all you have while you have the chance."
"Everyone perceives you and writes about you in a different way, in print, in the media. The only true way to get to know an artist is through their music. If you're listening to an artist who writes their own music, you know you're finding out about that person through their songs. Without a doubt, the best way to get to know me is through my music."
"It's not like I'm abandoning one to be the other. I am them... legitimitly. I spent my whole youth singing in clubs doing whatever music paid the bills. If there were rock bars hiring that year.. I was a rock singer. If there were pop bars hiring that year.. I was a Top 40 singer. If there were country bars hiring that year.. I was a country singer. I've done them all. So, I am real, and this is what I do." (on Country vs. Pop)
"Up until I was a recording artist, I said whatever paid the bills... I really thought that as a poor kid I would never make it."
"Later in my life, I'm going to look back and smile and be very fulfilled. I know that if I don't give it my all right now I'll regret it later. That's very important to me, because I've worked all my life to have this."
"I've seen alot of bar fights. If one broke out in front of me I'd get right in there, as I can't stand to see people hitting each other. I'd be trying to split them up, Like I was going to be able to do anything! I'm surprised I didn't get myself killed!"
"I'm a morning person. I don't sleep in. So if I'm going to be up I prefer to do my work in the morning because I hate breaking up my day."
"A happy heart comes first then the happy face. I believe in that very much. Just learning that life has to go on and you have to make it go on,.that's all there is to it"
"I guess the thing to remember is that no matter how tough things can get in your life, you still have the power to make a choice. You can fade away or you can strive to survive."
"We're all very selfish people.We love the attention when its complimentary and we hate the attention when it sucks. I don't like bad attention. I like good attention. I'm no different than anyone else."
"I remember I autographed it to Mutt Lange, and I may only have put one t on Mutt. I mean, I'd never heard of such a name. I'm sure he must've thought that was quite funny. He must've known from that autograph, right off the bat, that I had no idea who he was." (on autographing a picture to Mutt when he first called wanting to find out more about her)
"I'm not going to be somebody who wants to hold on to my fame for the rest of my life."
"Country music is still your grandpa's music, but it's also your daughter's music. It's getting bigger and better all the time and I'm glad to be a part of it."
"[My music] is country with a lot of outside influences. it is a mix of a lot of different styles of music."
"Without a doubt, the best way to get to know me is through my music."
"I find that the very things that I get criticized for, which is usually being different and just doing my own thing and just being original, is the very thing that's making me successful."
"Being in the public eye, there are people that are going to want to hurt you, y'know. They've got motives and this is happenning to me right now and it is something that I am taking quite personally."
"I don't like drugs. I don't like alcohol. I like clean living people around me." (on choosing her band)
"We live in a very remote area, we live out in the wilderness, we live out on the lake. We've got dogs and horses. Real things that I like to go back to, y'know, because my dogs don't care where I am on the charts." (laughs) - Shania 1995.
"They really had a strong and obvious respect for what I had accomplished to that point, as opposed to saying,'I know how I can turn your career around for you'. They didn't want to reinvent my career." (on her management team Jon Landau) - Country Canada, 1997.
"I love being in front of a live audience where I can control things. What I'm least comfortable with is the studio or anything contrived. I'm never at my best on television. There's a row of cameras between you and the audience, and it's very weird, very confusing." - MACLEANS, March 1998.
"I like to have fun with music. The purpose of music for me is to entertain. I'm not out there to be Einstein. "I'm making music for records, not for text books. I'm looking to entertain and inspire people, make them feel good or stir up emotions" - Canadian Musician, 1998
"Selecting the band was based a lot on their energy level. I want them to be performers. I want them to involve the audience. I want it to be a party" (on her 1998 Come On Over tour)
"It was very hard on my native family, I'm a registered band member, I've been part of their community since I was a little child. It's very hurtful to know there are people who want to unravel all that." (on tabloid gossip about her Native heritage)
"There have been many stories, and I haven't read one, but I've heard little bits and pieces. Nothing is true at all. I'm not getting divorced; I'm very happily married. I'm not going back with my old boyfriend, and I've never had an affair with a married man. They are all actually pretty funny." - Country Song, April 2000 (on tabloid gossip)
"It was never my dream to be a star. That was my parents dream. I guess they prayed real hard." - MACLEANS, 1998
"I would love to have his life, to do the music and not have to be famous. I'm more private than people realize. I'm not easy to get to know. My husband's the only one who really knows me. To get through the kind of life I've been through, you have to be strong, and it's wonderful when you find the right person who can share everything about you." (on Mutt and being famous)
"My perfect day would start with breakfast out on the terrace, looking at the Alps. I'd wrap a duvet round myself, lounge around, then put on a soup or stew. Then I'd spend time with my horses. I'd come home, have a nice dinner and then Mutt and I would go watch a movie."
"My husband calls me Woody. When I met him, he thought I looked like Woody Woodpecker [because of her current haircut]. My family calls me Leen or Leeny, except for my grandmother who calls me Shania."
"I've always been so intense. I have to learn how to chill out. My husband is great at that. I love to cook, so when I'm home that helps me to relax."
"I was always a communicative performer, so I've just taken that on to a bigger stage. I don't like being seperated from the audience. I really enjoy the communication I have going on." (on performing)
"I start every day with a fruit and tofu shake. I always have liked soybeans, black beans, or chickpeas for lunch or dinner - and I love pasta. There are just so many ways to make pasta. And the Italians gave us so many wonderful sauces - your basic tomato, basil, olive oil, garlic." (on what she likes to eat while on tour)
"To be honest, I'm pretty exhausted, I soak in a hot bath and then go to bed. I'm not one of those people who stays up til four in the morning eating pizza and drinking beer." (on life on the road)
"I started at such a young age that I really feel old. I feel older than I am because I've lived such a full life already. I keep saying 'Oh, I'm so tired' "
"It's kind of fun, but I'm not sure what the definition of a diva is anymore. It could be an insult I suppose, but I think it's kind of fun." (on being called a Diva)
"I'm very independent. I've always been very bold, straightforward and black 'n' white about things in everyday life. I like to simplify things, get to the facts. That's always been the way I've been and nothing has ever been able to distract me - it's almost an insensitive quality. When your raised poor, and you've got lots of responsibilites as a child, you just end up that way, and it actually can be a bitter thing, but when my parents died, it just made me realize how valuable life is, how really fragile life is." (on a part of her personality)
"It's so easy to get flattered by everything that's going on around you. And it's okay to be flattered, but it's not okay to lose a true sense of humility. And it's hard. Sometimes you're trying to build your confidence and confidence comes from ego. In order to be really confident, and do a good job, it's kind of an ego thing. So, how do you do that and stay humble at the same time?... I think humility is the most important thing for me to remember."
"I believe strongly in the strength and ability of women. This fragrance is about living life and pursuing your dreams. It's about believing in yourself.....The fragrance represents the qualities that I try to embody each day: strength and confidence, independence and love of life. I hope this fragrance gives a small piece of that to the women who will wear it everyday." (on her perfume "Shania" by Stetson)
"Women are strong, and women admire beauty just as much as men do. I'll tell you one thing, men are more intimidated by me than the women. I'm not kidding."
"I have arm-wrestled here and there... guys seem to want to test my strength."
"I'm no cowgirl. ... hell, I'm a bush girl, and that's much tougher!" (as she laughs)
"Sometimes we would literally go two or three days at a time where we'd sit by the fire and start writing in the morning, go for a walk later in the afternoon, go for a horseback ride or eat, then write, go to bed really late, get up early in the morning and start all over again." (on writing the album Come On Over)
"We were in Italy two years ago, and we were at a soccer game. My husband loves sports. I don't know the game that well, so my mind drifted and I started writing." (how "From This Moment On" came about)
"I'm as excited as anyone when I get up there and win, but to be honest with you, I don't sit there waiting. I learned a long time ago that you just end up being very disappointed. I think it can make you very bitter if you just put too much weight in that. I don't want to be bitter. I don't even want to compete on that level, so I take it very lightly, actually." (on winning awards)
"Sorry about my butt there guys. You know, I would take a seat! But I wouldn't want to sit on a swollen member." (while hosting the 2003 Juno Awards, Shania was in the audience talking to some artists and accidentally had her backside in the faces of the group Swollen Members)
"All I had to do was slap Jude Law around a little bit and get mad at him. It was fun." (on her cameo in I (Heart) Huckabees)
"Forty is just another birthday. It doesn't make any difference you change physically, but I'm happy to do that." (on turning 40)
"I really should start partying more. I'm 40 now, and I've just got to start letting my hair down" - Country Weekly quote of the week
"Im still not able to walk down the beach without a beach wrap. I don't think I ever will be able to. It's kinda dumb!"
"You can't just grab her and help yourself. You have to ask, maybe she'll say yes...and maybe not." (referring to her song "If You Want To Touch Her, Ask!")
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Quotes From Others About Shania:
"I am in awe of Shania Twain. I think that she is a wonderful artist, a great performer and she carries the torch of success with grace and dignity." - Michelle Wright
"I met her in France recently, and she was wearing jeans and a low cut top, and she is one hot little number. Too bad she's married." - Justin Timberlake, January 2003 Rolling Stone
"Shania Twain is great, because she's smart and she's absolutely beautiful, and she writes these unbelievable songs. She's got a very commercial beat on the public. She knows what men want; she knows what women want. She knows how to do a song without offending anyone." - Dolly Parton
"Well, that oughtta shut everybody up. You did it, baby!" - Vince Gill after Shania won the 1999 CMA Entertainer Of The Year award
"Shania Twain has carved out her own place in country. Until she came along, there was no job description for what she is -- a pop femme fatale in country, for want of a better term. She's playing by her own rules. And she's changing the audience." - Chet Flippo, Nashville correspondent for Billboard
"If she could just sell a few more albums she might just hit it big and I'll let her open for me on my next world tour." - Terri Clark joking about Shania at the 1998 CCMA's
"Shania's a different kind of performer. She's an energy. She's beautiful, she's got a great body, she loves to perform." - Pierre Cossette, Grammy producer
"She had a vision for what she wanted to go do, and anything less than achieving that was half-assed to her." - Toby Keith, toured with Shania in 1993
"Anne Murray cracked the door to success in America. Michelle Wright wedged it a little more. Shania blew it wide open." - Cliff Dumas, CISS-FM
"Shania Twain ... has done more for country and western than heartbreak and whiskey combined." - Rex Murphy, New Year's Eve/97 edition of CBC-TV's National Magazine
"She brought a whole other fan base to country music with her sound, the way the videos were produced." "I've always defended Shania. She not only opened doors; she knocked several down." - Faith Hill
"This was the greatest natural talent that I have ever been personally involved with." - Richard Frank, attorney who has represented Patsy Cline among others. - He was asked to see Shania perform at Deerhurst Resort
"She's been at the top of the charts for two years, and she still hasn't gotten the pats on the back that she deserves." (because she'd never won an ACM award - before 99) - Reba McEntire
"A lot of people are accusing her of being packaged. But I don't think this is a marketing-driven artist. It's been her vision from the beginning -- all the clothes, all the looks, all the concepts." - Luke Lewis, President of Mercury Nashville
"I don't think the (Dixie) Chicks have opened any doors for us. The biggest door opener for us has been Shania Twain and her style of country." - Kelsi (from SHeDaisy)
"She's developing into a big star. People love her. They've taken to her like a duck to water." - Trevor Smith, Australia Country Music Association
"What hasn't she done for country music, and what hasn't she done for females in country music? She deserves everything she gets, absolutely." - Tim McGraw at the 2000 ACMA's, on losing the Entertainer Of The Year award to Shania
"We market Shania like a pop star because she is a pop star internationally." - David Lory, vice president of artist development and international marketing for Mercury Records