Courtney Love

I try to place [beautiful imagery] next to fucked up imagery, because that's how I view things … I sometimes feel that no one's taken the time to write about certain things in rock, that there's a certain female point of view that's never been given space.

On her songwriting and lyrics, from interview with Everett True (June 1991). In article "Hole in Sidelines" from Melody Maker, p. 8. , 1991

If I fuckin' die without having written two, three, or four brilliant rock songs... I don't know why I lived my life.

Remarks about her ambitions early in her career (1991), Not Bad for a Girl documentary (1995) , 1991

I've always been provocative toward guys like that. They're lame, and they make it not fun for nerdy guys and nerdy girls and uncool people. They're like these self-righteous jock pricks up at the front, and they come there just to razz you— to tell you that they have a boner, or that they want to see your tits, or that you're ugly, or that you're a whore or something. They're ridiculous.

Regarding disruptive male audience members at concerts (1991), Not Bad for a Girl documentary (1995) , 1991

I didn't ever really talk until I started hanging out in '80 or '81 with the drag queens at the Metropolis [or Met, a gay new wave club] in Portland. I was very, very quiet. So much so that at one point when I was very young I was diagnosed as a probable autistic. And then I started hanging around with bitchy drag queens and with [my friends] Ursula and Robin, and they basically raised me. I found my inner bitch and I ran with her.

On being antisocial as a teenager, "Endless Love", Spin (February 1995) , 1991

Even though I now feel more confident and happy, I was really paranoid for about a year and a half. Basically, what happened was that I quit taking drugs and I walked out into the world and was sort of in this film that was really well received. So, after years of living a more destructive lifestyle, I had to, instantly, kind of court this world which had incredibly nice value systems, but with protocols that I had never encountered before. And then I had to reconcile these two worlds. You know—I want to live a happier, more productive lifestyle, but the question was, did I want to renounce being in a great rock ’n’ roll band for that? The answer was ‘No way.’

On reconciling her career in acting and music, interview with The Georgia Straight (1999) , 1996