"Not two days ago, I was having a look in a book and I saw a picture of a guy fried up above his knees. I said, 'I can relate,' cause' lately I've been thinking of combustication as a welcomed vacation from the burdens of the planet earth- like gravity, hypocrisy, and the perils of being in 3-D...and thinking so much differently. So pardon me while I burst into flames. I've had enough of the world and its people's mindless games." - Incubus, "Pardon Me"

"When I am Queen on royal throne made out of parts of broken bones of all the devils I have known that sucked the angels dry. When I am Queen I'll have my way, I'll make it drowning dollie day and all the tears that we have cried will suck back in our eyes." - Jack Off Jill, "When I Am Queen"

"You'll never see the courage I know- its colors' richness won't appear within your view. I'll never glow - the way that you glow. Your presence dominates the judgements made on you. But as the scenery grows, I see in different lights- the shades and shadows undulate in my perception. My feelings swell and stretch; I see from greater heights. I understand what I am still too proud to mention - to you. You'll say you understand, but You don't understand. You'll say you'd never give up seeing eye to eye. But never is a promise, and you can't afford to lie. You'll never touch - these things that I hold. The skin of my emotions lies beneath my own. You'll never feel the heat of this soul- my fever burns me deeper than I've ever shown - to you. You'll say, 'Don't fear your dreams, it's easier than it seems.' You'll say you'd never let me fall from hopes so high. But never is a promise and you can't afford to lie. You'll never live the life that I live; I'll never live the life that wakes me in the night. You'll never hear the message I give. You'll say it looks as though I might give up this fight. ...I realize what I am now too smart to mention - to you. You'll say you understand- you'll never understand. I'll say I'll never wake up knowing how or why. I don't know what to believe in; you don't know who I am. You'll say I need appeasing when I start to cry. But never is a promise and I'll never need a lie." - Fiona Apple, "Never Is A Promise"

"I was staring at the sky, just looking for a star to pray on, or wish on, or something like that. I was having a sweet fix of a daydream of a boy whose reality I knew, was a hopeless to be had. But then the dove of hope began its downward slope, and I believed for a moment that my chances were approaching to be grabbed; But as it came down near, so did a weary tear- I thought it was a bird, but it was just a paper bag. Hunger hurts, and I want him so bad, oh it kills. 'Cause I know I’m a mess he don’t wanna clean up. I got to fold cuz these hands are too shaky to hold. Hunger hurts, but starving works when it costs too much to love. And I went crazy again today, looking for a strand to climb- looking for a little hope. Baby said he couldn’t stay, wouldn’t put his lips to mine, and a fail to kiss is a fail to cope. I said, ‘Honey I don't feel so good, don’t feel justified. Come on put a little love here in my void,’ - he said ‘It’s all in your head,’ and I said, ‘So’s everything’ -But he didn’t get it." - Fiona Apple, "Paper Bag"

"I'm trying not to move; it's just your ghost passing through. ...There a light in your platoon; I've never seen a light move like yours can do to me. ...But now I've got to worry 'cause boy you still look pretty to me. But I've got a place to go; I've got a ticket to your late show, and now I'm worrying 'cause even still you sure are pretty when you're putting the damage on." - Tori Amos, "Putting the Damage On"

"I say the world is sick and you say, 'Tell me what that makes us darlin'?' You see you always find my faults faster than you find your own." - Tori Amos, "Upside Down"

"why does it come as a surprise to think that i was so naive. maybe didn't mean so much but it meant everything to me." - nine inch nails, "that's what i get"

"This child has grown into a dead end since I lost the power to pretend. ...In my finest hour I'm still alone. But it's all right- that's who I am inside. ...So don't judge me by my failures, but only by my dreams." - SR-71, "Non Toxic"

"There is a place for me- far, far away. In someone else's dream or in a magazine postered over your bed. Put your hands to your head screaming take me away. I could watch you a thousand times. Row B seat 13. Half a ticket in the silver light, an entire universe between." - Jump, Little Children, "B-13"

"Rape my mind and destroy my feelings; don't tell me what to do. I don't care now 'cause I'm on my side, and I can see through you. ...No need to hear things that they say; Life's for my own to live my own way." - Metallica, "Escape"

"Always speaking out when it's not your turn, you glitter girl. Got a world of diamonds in your hand and you toss them up just because you can. Takes a lot of gloss and shine to stand in your glitter world.. So tell me what are all the rules for if some aren't made to break? And tell me what now is the truth if you've always heard a lie? You always swear the way to land right on your feet is to take that breath of faith and leap. ...Cut rubies with her eyes; shed her skin instead of cry. Never hear her apologize for what she's done." - Chrystina Lloree, "Glitter Girl"

"Just the kindness I've lavished on strangers is more than I can explain. Still there's many who've turned out their porch lights just so I would think they were not home, and hid in the dark of their windows till I'd passed and left them alone. And god help you if you are an ugly girl, 'course too pretty is also your doom. 'Cause everyone harbors a secret hatred for the prettiest girl in the room. And god help you if you are a phoenix and you dare to rise up from the ash. A thousand eyes will smolder with jealousy while you are just flying past. I'm not trying to give my life meaning by demeaning you, and I would like to state for the record I did everything that I could do. I'm not saying that I'm a saint; I just don't want to live that way. ..Squint your eyes and look closer, I'm not between you and your ambition. I am a poster girl with no poster. I am thirty-two flavors and then some. And I'm beyond your peripheral vision so you might want to turn your head. 'Cause someday you might find you're starving and eating all of the words you said." - Ani DiFranco, "32 Flavors"

"I learned the truth at seventeen, that love was meant for beauty queens, and high school girls with clear-skinned smiles who married young and then retired. The valentines I never knew, the friday night charades of youth were spent on one more beautiful, at seventeen I learned the truth. And those of us with ravaged faces lacking in the social graces, desperately remained at home inventing lovers on the phone who called to say 'come dance with me' and murmured vague obscenities. It isn't all it seems at seventeen. ...To those of us who knew the pain of valentines that never came, and those whose names were never called when choosing sides for basketball. It was long ago and far away, the world was younger than today, when dreams were all they gave for free to ugly duckling girls like me." - Janis Ian, "At Seventeen"

"Good times, for a change. See, the luck I've had can make a good man turn bad. ...So, for once in my life let me get what I want; Lord knows it would be the first time." The Smiths, "Please please please let me get what I want"

"You cannot quit me so quickly. There's no hope in you for me. No corner you could squeeze me. But I got all the time for you, love. The Space Between the tears we cry is the laughter that keeps us coming back for more. The Space Between the wicked lies we tell and hope to keep us safe from the pain. ...The Space Between what's wrong and right is where you'll find me hiding, waiting for you. The Space Between your heart and mine is the space we'll fill with time." - Dave Matthews Band, "Space Between"

"They painted up your secrets with the lies they told to you. And the least they ever gave you was the most you ever knew. And I wonder where these dreams go when the world gets in your way. What's the point in all this screaming- you're not listening anyway. " - Goo Goo Dolls, "Acoustic #3"

"Good feeling won't you stay with me just a little longer, y'know it always seems like you're leaving when I know the other just a little one too well" - Violent Femmes, "Good Feeling"

"So I guess the fortune teller's right- I should have seen just what was there and not some holy lie. But you crawled beneath my veins and now I don't care; I have no luck. I don't miss it all that much. There's just so many things that I can touch. ...I'm all out of faith- this is how I feel. I'm cold and I am shamed lying naked on the floor. Illusion never changed into something real; I'm wide awake and I can see the perfect sky is torn." - Natalie Imbruglia, "Torn"

"This house is like Russia with eyes cold and gray. You got me moving in a circle- I dyed my hair red today. ...You can say it one more time- what you don't like. Let me hear it one more time then have a seat while I take to the sky."- Tori Amos, "Take To The Sky"

"I got my feet on the ground and I don't go to sleep to dream. You got your head in the clouds and you're not at all what you seem. This mind- this body- and this voice cannot be stifled by your deviant ways, so don't forget what I told you, don't come around, I've got my own hell to raise." - Fiona Apple, "Sleep to Dream"

"In the cathedrals of New York and Rome, there is a feeling that you should just go home, and spend a lifetime wondering just where that is." - Jump, Little Children, "Cathedrals"

"Here in my security- I don't make a move unless my friends approve, I do what's expected of me. And as I grow older and there's so much that I do not know. I'm drawn to those who are bolder and go where no one dared to go. And I sleep and I dream of the person I might have been, and I'll be free again. And I'll speak like someone who's been to the highest peaks and then back again. And I swear that my grass is greener than anyone's 'til I believe again. Then I wake and the dream fades away.." - Jeffrey Gaines, "Hero In Me"

"I go from day to day, I know where the cupboards are, I know where the car is parked, I know he isn't you." - Tori Amos, "Hey Jupiter"

"Don't even think about gettin' inside, voices in my head, but it says, I got scratches all over my arms- one for each day since I fell apart. I did what I had to do. If there was a reason it was you." - Pearl Jam, "Footsteps"

"The Fool might be my middle name, but I'd be foolish not to say- Going to make whatever it takes, ring you up, call you down, sign your name, secret love...Couldn't I take you in and make you mine? ...You know with love come strange currencies and here is my appeal: I need a chance, a second chance, a third chance, a fourth chance, a word, a signal, a nod, a little breath just to fool myself, catch myself, to make it real." - REM, "Strange Currencies"

"Make it last for an hour we'll never feel this way again. Make it all that you want and everything that I need. Make it last 'cause you're not making me any promises. Make it last, make the best of what you see. ...You can't feed my imagination. You give to me what I need to see, it's a twisted fascination. It feels so good to make it through the cold, but you know that he'll just close all the doors, just close 'em all for the rest of time." - Stroke 9, "Make It Last"

"Everyone here knows everyone here is thinking 'bout somebody else. It's best if we all keep this inside our heads. I couldn't tell if anyone here was feeling the way I do. But it's over now...there's no getting back to good." - Matchbox Twenty, "Back to Good"

"Goodbye Norma Jean from the young man in the 22nd row who sees you as something as more than sexual- more than just our Marilyn Monroe." - Elton John, "Candle in the Wind"

"Growing up it all seems so one-sided- opinions all provided, the future pre-decided, detached and subdivided in the mass production zone. Nowhere is the dreamer or the misfit so alone. Subdivisions- in the high school halls, in the shopping malls, conform or be cast out. ...Drawn like moths we drift into the city- the timeless old attraction, cruising for the action. Lit up like a firefly just to feel the living night." - Rush, "Subdivisions"

"One likes to believe in the freedom of music, but glittering prizes and endless compromises shatter the illusion of integrity." - Rush, "The Spirit of Radio"

"There is unrest in the Forest- there is trouble with the trees. For the Maples want more sunlight and the Oaks ignore their pleas. The trouble with the Maples (and they're quite convinced they're right), they say the Oaks are just too lofty and they grab up all the light. But the Oaks can't help their feelings if they like the way they're made. And they wonder why the Maples can't be happy in their shade? There is trouble in the forest and the creatures all have fled, as the Maples scream 'Oppression!' and the Oaks just shake their heads. So the Maples formed a Union and demanded equal rights. 'The Oaks are just too greedy, we will make them give us light.' Now there's no more Oak oppression for they passed a noble law. And the trees are all kept equal by hatchet, axe, and saw." - Rush, "The Trees"

"He was seen on the 15th floor, straight up and straight down. ...Two more inches will do it...there was always a crowd, traffic jam, and someone to pray. Heaven above hold him back, hold out and hold on, he would say to himself, I'll be bigger than life when I'm gone. ...Kinda peaceful up here all alone, hang out, hangin' out, til everyone comes to see. Again they'll all be let down. He's a legend unto himself. There's nothing between him and the pavement, and there's nothing between him and anyone else." - Jump, Little Children, "15 Stories"

"I believed in nothing, but you believed in me. I thought that life was worthless, but you told me I'm a star. I've never been loved by an angel. I've never felt anything so pure. ...Until tonight when your heaven filled my room."- Stabbing Westward, "Angel"

"I wish I was a neutron bomb, for once I could go off. I wish I was a sacrifice, but somehow still lived on. I wish I was a sentimental ornament you hung on the Christmas tree; I wish I was the star that went on top. ...I wish I was a sailor with someone who waited for me. I wish I was as fortunate, as fortunate as me. I wish I was a messenger and all the news was good. I wish I was the full moon shining off a Camaro's hood. ...I wish I was the souvenir you kept your house key on. ...I wish I was a radio song, the one that you turned up. I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish...I guess it never stops." Pearl Jam, "Wishlist"

"She's an ugly girl, does it make you want to kill her? Do you want to kick her in the face? She doesn't pose a threat. Does that make you feel safe? Do you hate her 'cause she's pieces of you? You say he's a faggot, does it make you want to hurt him? Does he make you sick to your stomach? Are you afraid you're just the same? Do you hate him 'cause he's pieces of you? You say he's a Jew, do you want to hurt his kids tonight? Do you hate him 'cause he's pieces of you?" - Jewel, "Pieces Of You"

"Fat boy goes to the pool, sees his reflection doesn't know what to do. He feels little inside and filled with pride. Oh fragile flame, no one sees the same. ...Fat boy says 'Wouldn't it be nice if I could melt myself like ice, or outrun my skin and be pure wind.' Oh fragile flame, sometimes I feel the same." - Jewel, "Fat Boy"

"Such injustice, as children we are told that from God we fell. Where are my angels? Where is my golden one? Where is my hope now that my heroes have gone? Some are being beaten, some are being born, and some can't tell the difference anymore." - Jewel, "Amen"