Cars and Guitars

"Do you ever start screaming in a car? Just having an argument, reliving an argument? And you go, 'What is it gonna take? What language is it going to take for us to communicate on this issue?' So I thought, what is the language that this guy understands? So I decided to become a car… One with the stick that he can put his hands on and maneuver. He can polish my rims. He can step inside me. Then I decided I could also become a guitar. He could pick me up and play me and I could listen to what he's trying to say. If I could just change my shape we could maybe get through this because it never was the cars and guitars that came between us." [toriamos.com - March 10, 2005]

"One morning not long ago, I was driving into town in Cornwall, and a scenario occurred to me that involved a woman who just keeps driving. She gets up in the morning, has to go to work, has to get the kids ready for school, has to deal with the in-laws, the husband, everybody's needs. She becomes completely depleted, and hormonal-God knows what's happening that day. So she just says, "I can't do this anymore" (sound familiar?) and keeps on driving. She doesn't pick that kid up from school-she makes a call and says, "I need you to pick him up, take care of him until I get home." Then maybe she just walks out of her life. She doesn't necessarily kill herself, but just decides, "I can't do this anymore." Now, this story probably happens every day. It's not me-I didn't keep driving. But I want to explore that. I think it's hard for the audience to accept that an artist they love, who is one of the good guys, as they see it, would even explore one of these archetypes-in the case of this story, Kali, goddess of destruction, is at play here - and that can be scary. Certain archetypes are scary becuase they bring up specific qualities within us that maybe we have buried deep, deep down. And sometimes these qualities erupt, and this is where Pele comes in, and she can be quite a 5-Percent-Off-Your-Personality-Clearance-Sale type of teacher. But I can hang around for that." [Tori Amos: Piece by Piece]