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" I think if people really listened to what our families who serve go through, we could have a realistic discussion of what it means to send young people to war. "

Mary Gauthier

War

Discussion

People

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" The job of the artist is to go to the places where most other people are embarrassed to go to. And show it. "

Mary Gauthier

Job

Artist

" A lot of times, a bunch of songs have to be written to get to the next really good one. "

" I did not know that if a member of a family serves, the whole family serves. I did not know that the spouses of our service members carry such a heavy load. "

" Recovery stabilized me; songwriting gave me a purpose. "

Mary Gauthier

Songwriting

Purpose

" I teach songwriting a lot, and I always tell my students, 'You gotta write the little songs sometimes to get to the next big song in the chute.' You gotta write 'em to get to it. You never know what's going to be a little song or a big song. "

" I have got my story. Adoptees rarely get our stories. We only know what we are told. I don't even have my story, really. My mother won't tell me. She won't tell me who my father is. She won't tell me the story of my birth. "

" Fundamentally, our job as songwriters is to sit down and listen. "

" I'm sort of stuck in adolescence in many ways, like most artists, and march to my own beat. "

" I've come to terms with the fact that I'll probably be in therapy all of my life. "

" I would make a terrible soldier, because I don't follow orders. "

Mary Gauthier

Because

Terrible

" I haven't been in the military, but I've known my share of pain. It allows me to sit with someone who's struggling and not be afraid. "

Mary Gauthier

Afraid

Someone

" It can take me many months to write one of my own songs. "

" I don't really write for catharsis; I get that kind of work done in therapy. "

" I don't know who my dad is. "

" I'm a traveler and a vagabond and an observer, and the songs come through that. And that's just the way it's going to be. "

" I've learned our soldiers are so much like everybody else. They're just put into an extreme situation. "

Mary Gauthier

Just

Much

" I came to music and knowing a little bit about life, and I came to music knowing a lot about business - and that's a real advantage. By the time I came to music, I had purchased real estate, opened restaurants, and been in the business world, so the music business didn't blindside me. "

" Creating something beautiful out of pain helps ease the pain. So, that's kind of how I got to songwriting - quite honestly out of desperation. "

" A lot of songwriters have written about soldiers and war, but very few have written with them. "

" I'm a big fan of Lou Reed, and I do a lot of talking through songs. It's more effective with my vocal limitations and also more powerful to slightly sing sometimes. It depends on the emotion, but I'm never going to try to compete with great singers. "

" I love SongwritingWith:Soldiers. "

Mary Gauthier

Love

I Love

" The belief when your mother gives you away is that there's something deeply wrong. Mothers don't give babies away. There's something wrong with me, something unlovable, something seriously flawed in me. It's a fundamental thing; it's precognitive. You feel it rather than think it. How could you not? "

" I'm from New Orleans, and I have a French last name - although I have no real relationship with my last name because it's not my name. I don't know my name. "

" There's an ocean of misunderstanding. It's called the civilian-military divide. I had a lot to learn about our military - who they are, what burdens they carry. "

" There's a universal inside of me. So if I tell my story, you're going to see parts of your story in it. I don't know which parts, but we all overlap. We're all very much alike. "

Mary Gauthier

Story

Know

" I'm an old-fashioned folk singer. I stand in front of an audience with a guitar and a barstool. "

" I think each veteran's soul has something that it needs to say. I know from my own personal traumas, it's very hard to know what that is. But when I'm watching someone else struggle, it's not as confusing for me, 'cause it's not my struggle, so I can help identify that. "

" I think music is the highest form of healing. "

" Melody's like tweezers that go into the infection and pull out the wounded part. You can almost not stay silent in the face of a melody that matches your emotion. You feel seen. "

Mary Gauthier

Silent

Feel

" I think I'll always draw from being a person that doesn't know how to have a normal life, whatever a normal life is. "