“We were very deliberately not playing 12-bar structures, blues structu...” — Viv Albertine Quote

We were very deliberately not playing 12-bar structures, blues structures, which rock musicians turned into such a cliche. We tried to... listen to the rhythms within ourselves and take the normal words we used every day in our normal thoughts, which girls hadn't written about before.

I didn't have many role models or interesting women to get stirred up by until Yoko Ono came along.

If my 18-year-old daughter asked me whether she should lead a truth-hunting, artistic, uncompromising life as I have done, I'd say no, don't do it. It's a difficult and lonely path for a woman.

The more blows you have in life, the better, because it means you're challenging yourself.

Rhythm and blues started even before phonograph records were being produced because black people entertained themselves. It wasn't done for money. It was done for entertainment. Most white people didn't know anything about this because prejudice kept them from ever seeing what was going on.

I am fascinated by the places that music comes from, like fife-and-drum blues from southern Mississippi or Cajun music out of Lafayette, Louisiana, shape-note singing, old harp singing from the mountains - I love that stuff. It's like the beginning of rock and roll: something comes down from the hills, and something comes up from the delta.

My family was a Christian family. But I had to get to Kansas to play the blues.

'Blues Clues' has been incredibly good to me, and I've been working so hard on it for so long that I take it very personally. I wouldn't want to do anything to jeopardize what so many kids love. So there's a lot of responsibility there.