I was mainly influenced by the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard, and others like Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash.

quote by Iris DeMent
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This is how it has been since time began: If you want to make something really worthwhile and true, then you have to suffer for it.

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For a long time I was interested in being a social worker. In a lot of ways I feel that that's all my music is, trying to help people.

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I never set out to write songs about the world around me... it just kind of came about as a result of paying more attention to things.

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Most of the music you hear on the radio today is developed for making money. It doesn't feel true or honest. You can feel it in the music.

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I've always been aware of having feelings that were pretty intense at times. I imagine most people have had that, or they wouldn't be human.

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Some guy refuses to fight and we call that the sin, but he's standing up for what he believes in and that seems pretty damned American to me.

quote by Iris Dement
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If something bothers me, it bothers me for a long time until I find a way to work it out. Music provided me with a means of working things out.

quote by Iris DeMent
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