I feel so lucky that I met the love of my life. You know somebody’s in it to win it when they’re changing your IV bag or you’re having a seizure and they’re holding you. And helping you to the bathroom. You know that they love you. – Kathleen Hanna
I don’t want to be a historical action figure or treated like I’m dead. Like one of those people where they go, ‘Oh, isn’t she dead?’ And then I walk up, and they’re like, ‘Whoa.’ I can’t really complain… because I’ve made myself into a historical action figure. I was like, ‘Yeah, come on in!’ – Kathleen Hanna
I think as a culture, we don’t like conflict or looking at icky stuff – especially in our downtime. – Kathleen Hanna
I know I love sexy surf guitars, I know I love loud snare. I love really simple repeating bass lines, and I love weird mad scientist keyboard sounds. – Kathleen Hanna
I’m in a really lucky position where people will be interested in whatever I do, but what I do is sing. – Kathleen Hanna
I especially don’t want men coming up to me and asking if sexism still exists. It’s like, I’m seriously gonna barf a McDonald’s salad on the next person to do that. – Kathleen Hanna
Defining art is huge; I feel like it’s such a subjective thing. It’s more like what’s not art. You know what I mean? I think there can be an art in the way people live their lives, and art can be a gift someone gives to somebody. – Kathleen Hanna
Not to rag on myself, but when people say, ‘What does it feel like to be an icon?’ I’m like, ‘My dog does not think I’m an icon, my cat does not think I am an icon, my cousin does not think I am an icon.’ I have a really lovely group of friends, and I just don’t think about it. – Kathleen Hanna
I like art with a sense of humor. I don’t have a huge art education to understand everything. I don’t think that means that art has to be watered down to the lowest common denominator, though. I don’t think you have to go to college to be able appreciate great art, but I like art that doesn’t take itself too seriously. – Kathleen Hanna
When I watch myself on camera, in any capacity – being interviewed, performing, 20 years ago or yesterday – there’s a part of me that really doesn’t grasp that it’s me. – Kathleen Hanna
I always thought that putting tons of reverb on my voice was kind of the equivalent of airbrushing. And I wanted other girls and women to hear a real female voice that wasn’t completely manipulated. – Kathleen Hanna
I have late-stage Lyme disease. I was misdiagnosed for many, many years and told I had lupus, MS, Crohn’s disease, even degenerative arthritis. And finally in 2010, I got the correct diagnosis, because on the last Le Tigre tour, I was having several seizures a day and at times not being able to brush my own teeth. – Kathleen Hanna
In 1985, I was living with my sister in Virginia, and since I was still in high school, I worked at McDonald’s to save money to get an abortion. It sounds really terrible, but it was the best decision I ever made. It was the first time I took responsibility for my actions. I messed up, had sex without contraception, and got pregnant at 15. – Kathleen Hanna
I would love to make a bunch of country demos and write country songs for really great country singers. – Kathleen Hanna
Facing sexism and racism and classism and transphobia, there are ways to choose to act in those situations, and there shouldn’t be a prescriptive list of things that you have to say. – Kathleen Hanna
You don’t have to have magic unicorn powers. You work at it, and you get better. It’s like anything: You sit there and do it every day, and eventually you get good at it. – Kathleen Hanna
It’s really funny – when I’m depressed or I’m having a hard time, I’ll write really fun stuff. And then when I’m really happy, I write really depressing stuff. – Kathleen Hanna
Sometimes, being a feminist artist, there are times where I’m in a position where I just want to feel like I’m saying all the right things politically, or I feel like I have to mention my own project over other people’s projects. But I don’t do that anymore. I just want to be off the cuff and honest. – Kathleen Hanna
I go to lectures and girls are finding out about Bikini Kill or Le Tigre for the first time and are like,’ This is my jam!’ It still feels fresh to them. – Kathleen Hanna
So many women have experienced horrific forms of male violence throughout their lives, and why isn’t there a song about how you get depressed because of it? – Kathleen Hanna
There are so many great artists that are doing interesting things, that I don’t want to focus on boring people. – Kathleen Hanna
It’s unexpected for women’s issues to be brought up in places other than women’s centers on college campuses or crisis places. – Kathleen Hanna
I’m just working and having a good time and seeing what develops, which is so awesome, because you don’t know what’s going to happen, and I’m letting myself do that a lot more than I ever have. – Kathleen Hanna
I’m really annoyed by the wave of country music that’s just a list of stuff. It almost sounds like L.A. people writing country music, because it’s just a list of stuff: ‘My pickup truck and my cowboy boots and my Levi’s jeans and my girlfriend with the short shorts.’ It’s so boring! – Kathleen Hanna
People have always had these weird things about how you have to be really good looking to be a singer. – Kathleen Hanna
I felt it was really, really important, not just in the vein of feminist erasure or whatever but also just as an artist that I honored my work. – Kathleen Hanna
I was making stickers for guys’ bands. I was in the front row photographing bands, booking bands, doing all of the kind of backstage stuff, and I didn’t even think for a second I could do it, and then I saw Babes in Toyland, and all that changed. – Kathleen Hanna
