The Philosophy of Tori Amos

“Anyone can attend yoga, kabbalah classes, church, lectures by the Dalai Lama, yada, yada, yada - but can you be present for your life, and live with the way you treat other people?” [More - February 2005]

“There are several ways to climb a mountain and there are many paths to come down again. Even if you know them all, sometimes you reach the summit only to find that there are a hundred more mountaintops to conquer. That outlook is sacred to me. Wherever our life force is coming from, it couldn’t have originated from one particular religion. I grew up with the thesis there’s only one God, one religion, one road to the top. Very shortsighted! I think every religion contains little pieces of magic. Use it to shape your own truth.” [Oor (Dutch) - April 18, 1998]

“There’s the inner world which is a reflection of the outer world, and when you think of all the billions of worlds that are going on out there - we are connected with that, we’re not encouraged to think of our connection as why we are on this planet. Is our life just functional; is that all that is? Getting up, going to work, having kids, to just populate the planet? I mean there have to be reasons we do things...” [In Conversation - interview cd, 1992]

“It doesn’t matter to me anymore whether something’s bad or wrong. I’ve been too busy with that my whole life. Life is a test and you learn from the moment things happen to you. How do you react? Are you getting depressed? Do you feel like you’re a failure? Or do you think: ‘OK, that happened, this is what I said, or that didn’t go the way I expected’. One who plays safe will never know what he or she is capable of. If you are afraid to go too far or to show who you really are then you are not living life the fullest.” [Oor - March 7, 1992]

“I see the dream and I see the nightmare, and I believe you can’t have the dream without the nightmare.” [Keyboards (Germany) - September 1992]