“This song was written for this guy who was going to beat me up. It was all very tragic. I fell for other boys too, but he was my dream. I was looking for that mate. [Written on or before Tori’s 14th birthday – Ed].”Tori Amos (584)

“I’ve written a song called ‘Sugar’ about those people you meet that you’ll never have a relationship with, but if you could have 25 minutes alone with them, you’d have this incredible affair. There’s something magical and you want to merge with it in every way possible. That’s why I could imagine being a carnivore thousands of years ago; you want to merge with them so intensely you could almost eat them. Say we didn’t have bodies and blood and guts, but just released these little light energies like colors, then we could just merge. That’s what making love is really about. Your blue connects with my pale orange; a little bit of fire engine red with your lime green! That’s what they were doing when they ate someone, like their lover or a beaten enemy. It’s a bit different with the Romans buggering the guys they beat — it all gets distorted down the line. They were merging; that’s what they were doing.”Tori Amos (584)

“Well, when I wrote it, I didn’t know how many women would respond… One out of every four women who get backstage say that they have had a similar experience, and that they haven’t spoken about it. When I put it out I knew what it was… I didn’t know that I was gonna have to keep talking about rape. It would be nice not to have to talk about it, because I would like to move on, but it stays with me all the time.”Tori Amos (585)

“I haven’t been able to be the Pope. I’ve been able to be the Virgin Mary and Margaret Thatcher, and both are kinda sexless. Mary was our role model in the Christian church, and we’re talking about a woman that was a sexless being in the teachings. I think we can both see what that’s going to do to a whole culture. Pieces get cut out so that certain cultures can control it, and what got cut out in the Christian church was the sexuality and the passion. The shadow side of that was Mary Magdalene, who we’ve always been taught was a whore because that’s the camp I was in. But why did I have to be divided from the two Marys? Shouldn’t it be about the balance? It should be about a wholeness, but it’s about division. There’s a division of power, male and female power, and there’s a division within my own being. There’s been a dishonoring of us with each other, and us with ourselves, and women against women, and men against men, and women against men… and that’s how the song ‘God’ got written. The institutional God who’s been ruling the universe, in the books, has to be held accountable. I want to have a cup of tea with him and just have a little chat. I feel like the song is a releasing, a sharing. It’s honest and loving. And it’s sensuous. It’s the goddess coming forth and saying, “Come here, baby. I think you’ve had a bit of a rough job, and I don’t mind helping out now.” Which I think is really cute.”Tori Amos (586)

“It’s for all my friends who are whores. Well, this is a true story. When I worked in clubs in D.C., I became friends with a whore. And she’d come in a few times a week for a few years. She was a hooker, but you wouldn’t know. She looked like an assistant to somebody on Capitol Hill. That’s what all the good ones look like. Anyway, she was involved with a Congressman. And she got in over her head, and she knew too much, and she had to flee. The hooker had to leave. She was, let’s say, rescued by a big Japanese underworld magnate. She fled, and he protected her, and I never heard from her again.”Tori Amos (587)