quotes by Lavinia Greenlaw

"The greatest act of love was to make a tape for someone. It was the only way we could share music and it was also a way of advertising yourself."
— Lavinia Greenlaw (The Importance of Music to Girls)

"This is a work of memory -- facts have been altered. Names have been changed."
— Lavinia Greenlaw (The Importance of Music to Girls)

"This is the starting point of dance: something -- the music, the steps, your partner -- holds you but you also have to hold it and, to achieve the necessary tension, hold yourself against it."
— Lavinia Greenlaw (The Importance of Music to Girls)

"We reveal something of our nature when we sing, something that can be disguised in our speaking voice."
— Lavinia Greenlaw (The Importance of Music to Girls)

"When children meet other children, they have to do something -- fight or play."
— Lavinia Greenlaw (The Importance of Music to Girls)

"If you don't hear this kind of music [pop] at the right time, can it ever make sense to you?"
— Lavinia Greenlaw (The Importance of Music to Girls)

"More so than with any other instrument, the violin becomes part of the body. Good musicians are physically dissolved when playing, and for violinists, who cannot see where to place their fingers and have nothing to guide them through touch, music must be more than ever about memory than fingertips and breath; the ventage is deeper, more of the self, closer to singing."
— Lavinia Greenlaw (The Importance of Music to Girls)

"I got to know [teen music] as we absorb music in passing but can remember only its seriousness and weight."
— Lavinia Greenlaw (The Importance of Music to Girls)

"Too young to bring about change, we brought about disturbance."
— Lavinia Greenlaw (The Importance of Music to Girls)

"Being a woman seemed to mean listening to the music boys liked and neither dancing nor singing along."
— Lavinia Greenlaw (The Importance of Music to Girls)

"[My mother] believed we could each change the world, but what convinced me this was possible was music."
— Lavinia Greenlaw (The Importance of Music to Girls)