Top 50 Neko Case Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “It’s like sometimes, you can just lay back and it takes the pressure off of you.”

— Neko Case

2. “The most tender place in my heart is for strangers. I know it’s unkind, but my own blood is much too dangerous.”

— Neko Case

3. “Sounds like to have space sometimes. It’s good to give yourself a variety, or you just fatigue your ear. Like if somebody sings in the same register all the time, or if it’s got the same feel the whole way through, I just find I get fatigued, so it’s nice to break it up.”

— Neko Case

4. “If you want to be noticed as a drop of water, why would you move to the ocean?”

— Neko Case

5. “The relationship of humans to nature. We are sadly divorced from it.”

— Neko Case

6. “Making music makes me feel vulnerable in the best possible way. It gives me a feeling of balance.”

— Neko Case

7. “I have this typical Ukrainian face. Even people who know my music don’t recognize me most of the time, thank God.”

— Neko Case

8. “I want to get away from the social vampires in Tucson. The people who have no lives of their own and meet me and know who I am and feel entitled to say negative things. I have good friends here, especially in the bands. But a lot of it is just like high school.”

— Neko Case

9. “The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight. The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You.”

— Neko Case

10. “The men who have gotten women pregnant need to be accountable if we are. If we are going to jail, the men are coming too. Religious rhetoric will bite its own ass trying to nail only women in a two-person process.”

— Neko Case

11. “When you’re making records, you develop, and so you hear the things you want to move away from. It stings a little, but you know, you gotta own it too. You’ve got to just go, “You know, I wasn’t afraid to learn in front of people, so I give myself a little credit for not being afraid of anything.””

— Neko Case

12. “Everybody in my band is married, pretty much, and have lives at home, and I don’t want them to be away from their families so long that they just start to feel psychotic. You have to go home and stand around in your bathrobe doing your dishes to feel like a normal person sometimes.”

— Neko Case

13. “I really wanted to find a piano for the farm house. There were so many free pianos on Craigslist, I thought, ‘Let’s get as many free pianos as we can and stick them all in the barn.’ I got eight in a short period of time, only six of which were tunable, but it’s still quite funny.”

— Neko Case

14. “I didn’t want to be the girl who posed in ‘Playboy’ and then – by the way – made some music.”

— Neko Case

15. “Country music is completely punk-rock. It’s the original punk-rock.”

— Neko Case

16. “I just really dig feeling subservient to nature. It brings me a peace and calm. Kind of like a Faustian thing, I think.”

— Neko Case

17. “I remember people would talk about Country Music like it was this sexist, lame thing. Well, no, because Dolly Parton is writing songs and playing her guitar and producing. She’s doing it all and she’s got hits on the radio.”

— Neko Case

18. “I always end up working with people that do a really good job, so I’m the only one that I’m worried about disappointing me, not the musicians ever.”

— Neko Case

19. “I have a real dog-like mentality, in that it’s like, ‘Where is my next meal coming from? Am I ever gonna eat again? Will I ever write another song again? Will anyone show up for tour?’ I think it comes from being really poor as a kid.”

— Neko Case

20. “I like to think that I’m not old yet.”

— Neko Case

21. “I don’t think it’s important for everyone necessarily, and I totally respect that because everyone writes differently.”

— Neko Case

22. “I think I have a lot of empathy for animals and nature in general. Those things just make me comfortable. I grew up in the middle of nowhere, around a lot of animals. I feel for them.”

— Neko Case

23. “I’m not very interesting. Birds are interesting. I could stand there lip-synching all day long, but it would feel funny, and people would be able to tell. I’m not a good actress.”

— Neko Case

24. “Playing in an independent rock band will eventually make you equal parts truck driver, gladiator and mule. Glamour is for those with trust funds.”

— Neko Case

25. “What drug will keep night from coming?”

— Neko Case

26. “The Bible tries to make humans not animals the whole time. I think it’s a bit of a mistake.”

— Neko Case

27. “You’re not supposed to totally know what’s happening. The songs are supposed to give you clues so you can fill in the blanks.”

— Neko Case

28. “If I could ever be on a Missy Elliott record, I could then die. Missy Elliott, Mary J. Blige – I love hearing them interviewed, I love the way they talk about their art. They’re very self-assured, they’re funny, they’re inviting. I love it.”

— Neko Case

29. “People get strange about whether you’ve written your own songs, which seems really stupid considering that, especially in Country Music, it’s about oral tradition and passing things on and the songs weren’t meant to be played by one person and then forgotten.”

— Neko Case

30. “I try to think of the songs as little movies. They’re always pretty visual to me. I can always sort of see them. I don’t always know what the end result is going to be, and I don’t know exactly what it’s going to sound like, but I can kinda see them.”

— Neko Case

31. “I like driving. I’m a real sucker for driving across North America – I never get sick of it, ever.”

— Neko Case

32. “When you live in a lot of places, you can’t help but have them become part of you. Technically, I am a Southerner, but I did not grow up in the South. So I’m a Southerner by accident, but a Washingtonian.”

— Neko Case

33. “I’m too small for the universe to revolve around me. It is a huge relief!”

— Neko Case

34. “I have a pathological fear of getting my picture taken.”

— Neko Case

35. “I think I’ve kind of been mistaken for somebody who’s trying to be a spokesperson for animal rights, and the fact is I’m not qualified to be a spokesperson. I am passionate about it, but I’m not trying to make other people do what I do.”

— Neko Case

36. “I think my songwriting might be a little more on the darker side maybe.”

— Neko Case

37. “I just want to make stories. They don’t have to have a moral or a reason. There might be some mild cautionary notes, but they’re not moral. They don’t impart any Judeo-Christian ethic of any kind.”

— Neko Case

38. “I don’t feel nervous or fearful when I’m on stage.”

— Neko Case

39. “All I want to do is sing on other people’s records.”

— Neko Case

40. “I get outside a lot. I am a huge champion of physical activity. It’s so important.”

— Neko Case

41. “There’s just kind of a sweetness about Canadians. Americans are a little more pushy, I mean, in a way that I enjoy – they’re basically pushy because of their enthusiasm – we’re a lot clumsier than other people.”

— Neko Case

42. “I know that I can sing really loud. It’s like having that really big Evinrude engine on the back of your fishing boat. But I’ve been trying to be more dynamic with my voice, and not just singing on 10 all of the time out of terror.”

— Neko Case

43. “We shouldn’t censor ourselves based on the weak idea of “looking cool.” It’s such a waste of potential awesomeness.”

— Neko Case

44. “Every band wants to go believe me, not everybody makes it, but they want to.”

— Neko Case

45. “I would be a huge hypocrite if I didn’t tell you that at one time in my life I thought the way that you made music was you got on a major label and you got famous.”

— Neko Case

46. “I tried to have more than one emotion on the record.”

— Neko Case

47. “You can’t just play the same thing, over and over again.”

— Neko Case

48. “I grew up with lots of animals and I related more to them than I did to people. I feel a lot of empathy for them.”

— Neko Case

49. “I try not to be overly literal. When I’m writing songs, I write down a lot of words, and then I try to simplify it. I like to give people hints or words that make visual pictures for them.”

— Neko Case

50. “Everyone has to kind of fend for themselves.”

— Neko Case