Quotes from a Keren Ann interview
How have goodbyes contributed to your songwriting?
The people I've had to leave behind inspire me to carry things along with me. You want love to be simple and domestic, but when a relationship is based on a couple of days here, a week there, love can't be simple. Every time you meet, love is ephemeral. It's the life of sailors.
Have you been able to maintain any romantic relationships?
Absolutely! I'm lucky. But when you do have something very special, you just want to let go, you want to lay your head down and not think of all the work it takes. You want it to be simple. And unfortunately when you do get to the point where you don't think about how hard it is, and you don't work for things, then sometimes it just doesn't work. I've had the fantastic privilege of seeing things that did work, and maybe I do still [winks]. The only way to really get along with someone, I think, is to be able to go beyond expectations. For me, the most lasting moments that exist in my life are a result of love without any expectations. We're allowed to have moods and to change. And you have to be with a person who's like you.
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Are you actively searching for love?
Being a singer means you're always in a vicious circle. The feeling of lonesomeness is the one you're most familiar with. You're mostly in hotel rooms on your own. I think, though, when you make the choice to make music, you have to make the choice to be constantly searching for love. When you're writing, you don't think about who's going to love you after this song. But once it's written, you can't live with the fact that someone won't love you back for what you've written.
I haven't met people who aren't constantly searching for love. But [as a musician] you're also constantly searching to be left alone, to do what you have to do. You want the love, you want to know it's there when you need it, but you want to know that the love is still there if you need to be on your own. And you can't love fully if you can't do what you love doing.
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Source: Keren Ann interviewed at yourtango