Top 70 Bonnie Raitt Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Solar power is the last energy resource that isn’t owned yet – nobody taxes the sun yet.”

— Bonnie Raitt

Featured in: Sun Quotes

2. “I can’t make you love me, if you don’t.”

— Bonnie Raitt

3. “Life gets mighty precious when there’s less of it to waste.”

— Bonnie Raitt

4. “Religion is for people who are scared to go to hell. Spirituality is for people who have already been there.”

— Bonnie Raitt

5. “We can live in fear or act out of hope.”

— Bonnie Raitt

6. “I’ll close my eyes, so I won’t see, all of the love that you don’t feel for me.”

— Bonnie Raitt

7. “Ugly ducklings don’t turn into swans and glide off down the lake. Whether your sunglasses are on or off, you only see the world you make.”

— Bonnie Raitt

8. “Playing guitar was one of my childhood hobbies, and I had played a little at school and at camp. My parents would drag me out to perform for my family, like all parents do, but it was a hobby – nothing more.”

— Bonnie Raitt

9. “In blues, classical and jazz, you get more revered with age.”

— Bonnie Raitt

10. “I thought I had to live that partying lifestyle in order to be authentic, but in fact if you keep it up too long, all you’re going to be is sloppy or dead.”

— Bonnie Raitt

11. “In 1967 I entered Harvard as a freshman, confident – in the way that only 17-year-olds are – that I could change the world. My major was African Studies, and my plan was to travel to Tanzania, where President Julius Nyerere was creating a government based on democracy and socialism.”

— Bonnie Raitt

12. “I hope I’m an integrous person who cleans up their messes when I’ve been a jerk.”

— Bonnie Raitt

13. “I never saw music in terms of men and women or black and white. There was just cool and uncool.”

— Bonnie Raitt

14. “I’m glad I get singled out for my slide guitar-playing, which isn’t that difficult to do. I didn’t take guitar lessons, but I just love the way it sounds, almost like the human voice.”

— Bonnie Raitt

15. “I would rather feel things in extreme than not at all.”

— Bonnie Raitt

16. “I think my fans will follow me into our combined old age. Real musicians and real fans stay together for a long, long time.”

— Bonnie Raitt

17. “I’m proud of the way I rearrange and put things together, like a chef who makes a great meal, or a filmmaker who puts together a story – it’s casting, editing, cinematography.”

— Bonnie Raitt

18. “One of the biggest obstacles I’ve overcome in my life was thinking I didn’t deserve to be successful. Artistically I’m not as much of a heavyweight as someone like Paul Simon or Joni Mitchell, because I’m not a creator of original music, and I worried about that for years.”

— Bonnie Raitt

19. “I don’t think there’s ever been any music quite like what we came up with.”

— Bonnie Raitt

20. “With slide guitar, you’re just hanging this piece of glass on your hand. It’s a really beautiful instrument in that it’s so responsive, you’re just slipping your hand back and forth.”

— Bonnie Raitt

21. “We can choose, you know, we ain’t no amoeba.”

— Bonnie Raitt

22. “I’m in a relationship, and I’ve been in one in a while, but all the people I’ve been with at various points – and I’ve had sequentially monogamous relationships my whole life – were all the right people at the right time.”

— Bonnie Raitt

23. “It’s incredible to see labor unions and environmentalists getting together to stop the corporate mentality that destroys both jobs and the environment.”

— Bonnie Raitt

24. “When you love a song so much you have to sing, you know how you feel – it releases something in you that resonates as true, whether it’s James Brown or Joni Mitchell.”

— Bonnie Raitt

25. “Some people are caricatures of themselves, and some people keep people coming back and keep themselves growing. Otherwise, the fans would get bored.”

— Bonnie Raitt

26. “My love was Bob Dylan, but as I got older I realized a good ballad was a good ballad.”

— Bonnie Raitt

27. “I’ve been lucky enough that I can gather all sorts of experiences and find inspiration by traveling around and by spending time with people I admire.”

— Bonnie Raitt

28. “I speak my mind and come from a place of conscience, as well as have fun as a musician.”

— Bonnie Raitt

29. “I was offered to take over for Reba in ‘Annie Get Your Gun,’ but it wasn’t where I wanted to be. I think my fans would be upset if I confined my shows to one city for a long period of time.”

— Bonnie Raitt

30. “The great thing about the arts, and especially popular music, is that it really does cut across genres and races and classes.”

— Bonnie Raitt

31. “I don’t want to discredit people’s opinions of me, but you talk about the violin or the cello or lead guitar where you have to learn tons of chords, that’s much more difficult.”

— Bonnie Raitt

32. “Sometimes I’m more true when I’m up onstage than I’m able to be in my regular life. It’s not as exciting to be at home, but I’ve got to learn how to make that work, and then I will be an ordinary woman.”

— Bonnie Raitt

33. “It’s so thrilling. And not just the music. The Internet is changing the future of fund-raising. I’m thrilled by the potential.”

— Bonnie Raitt

34. “The generation I grew up in was the beginning of “stand up for yourself,” whether being a singer-songwriter or a feminist. In my college years, the feminist movement was really coming to fore, so we wouldn’t have put up with guys treating us less than equal.”

— Bonnie Raitt

35. “I don’t know that I’m unique in that people relate to my music, but I would hope people would say that I’m honest and that I do the best work I can possibly do instead of coasting.”

— Bonnie Raitt

36. “I’m not that beautiful, and I don’t want to be a pop star.”

— Bonnie Raitt

37. “We did a two month tour with Taj Mahal that was really healing and cathartic and a good distraction after my brother passed away. Then I knew I wanted to take a year off, and it was really nice to have that chance to fall apart.”

— Bonnie Raitt

38. “Nobody went out to pasture, and a lot of people are doing their best work. Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, and Sting are at the top of their game. I mean, Tony Bennett is the coolest guy I ever met! We have to figure out how to break out of this age ghetto.”

— Bonnie Raitt

39. “The fifth member of my band is my non-profit work.”

— Bonnie Raitt

40. “I’m certain that it was an incredible gift for me to not only be friends with some of the greatest blues people who’ve ever lived, but to learn how they played, how they sang, how they lived their lives, ran their marriages, and talked to their kids.”

— Bonnie Raitt

41. “Pat Benatar might need a rock band, but I can just sit with a blues guitar for an hour and a half and do folk songs and great contemporary ballads, and not many people can pull that off.”

— Bonnie Raitt

42. “I would like to inspire a lot of people to be active and give back.”

— Bonnie Raitt

43. “I’m the same on stage as I am off stage. A lot of people who I admire – Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne – are not that different either. You hope that if you met them that they’d be as nice and well-rounded as they appear.”

— Bonnie Raitt

44. “There’s nothing like living a long time to create a depth and soulfulness in your music.”

— Bonnie Raitt

45. “The arts can be a great way to bring people together. I don’t preach from the stage. I try to stay positive on solutions.”

— Bonnie Raitt

46. “I think I’m a living embodiment of, ‘Don’t try to push me around or squash me,’ whether its how I talk to a record label or in my relationships.”

— Bonnie Raitt

47. “I think people must wonder how a white girl like me became a blues guitarist. The truth is, I never intended to do this for a living.”

— Bonnie Raitt

48. “People come up to me all the time who saw Dad in ‘Oklahoma!’ or ‘Pajama Game,’ and they say they’ll never forget it.”

— Bonnie Raitt

49. “It is still a surprise when people tell me that I’ve had an influence on them, particularly when it’s someone I really respect.”

— Bonnie Raitt

50. “I finally learned to accept that I can’t make radio play blues any more than I could get Reagan out of the White House.”

— Bonnie Raitt