Janis Ian

There will always be those people who are just backward and ignorant. There will always be those people. They need somebody to feel superior to.

I started 'Society's Child' on a bus in East Orange as I was going home from school. I saw a black and white couple sitting there and started thinking about it.

I mean, I would love to have the career Joan Baez is having in Europe right now, but God knows I don't begrudge her that career.

I miss America because it's where I grew up. I miss the size of the roads, the size of cars, the malls, the choices of radio.

I love eulogies. They are the most moving kind of speech because they attempt to pluck meaning from the fog, and on short order, when the emotions are still ragged and raw and susceptible to leaps.

Recently, I was in Bernalda, my dad's ancestral home town in Italy. He has just refurbished a palazzo and turned it into a hotel, so we had my sister's wedding there. It was beautiful.