I play a little acoustic bass and a little guitar. In our house there are instruments everywhere, and I love picking them up and just noodling around. I pick up my husband's tin whistle sometimes. He's really proficient, but it's about the second most annoying instrument - after the banjo - if you don't know how to play it.

Martie Maguire

Time Men Love

The older I get the more laid back I am about whatever happens, happens.

Martie Maguire

Whatever T Pens

I was born with great eyelashes. They just do what I want them to do.

Martie Maguire

Great Wit Want

What I've learned and all of us have learned is: You can't force art, and there's no way you could force somebody to do something that they didn't want to do in this line of work.

Martie Maguire

Work Art You

Costumes are great. That kind of effort tells the audience that the performer has taken the time to be the total package.

Martie Maguire

Time Great Age

You've got to live your life first and do your job second.

Martie Maguire

Life Your You

We started to overthink things in the Dixie Chicks and do things we thought people wanted us to do.

Martie Maguire

Art Wanted Want

When I look back at some of the Chicks stuff, it's the early stuff we did where we kind of giggle and go, 'You know what? Those were the good old days.'

Martie Maguire

Good You Where

I couldn't imagine that my career could have contributed to the demise of my marriage, but I do think neither of us realized that when you spend 60 to 70 days a year face-to-face, no marriage is going to survive. No relationship is going to survive.

Martie Maguire

Relationship Marriage Car

We've had a lot of controversy in our career, and it's never been intentional.

Martie Maguire

Car Tent Ten

When we were unknown, you don't get a lot of bad feedback. Now, we get people bad-mouthing us all the time, but it's all part of the game.

Martie Maguire

Time Art You

We have an older sister who gets pregnant easily. So Emily and I think there may be an environmental cause for our problems. Neither of us were very old when we started trying. But we've lived very parallel lives. We've been in a band together since I was 12 and she was 10. We can't help but wonder, did we stay in a hotel near a power plant?

Martie Maguire

Power Men Environmental

I am a really passive person to begin with so I have written a lot of pretty crappy songs with strangers because I let it go in a direction that I didn't feel it should have and I didn't know them well enough to speak up.

Martie Maguire

Anger Written Wit

I feel like Court Yard Hounds keeps us idling. I think Emily and I function better when we're continually making music and playing, and this is a way to keep doing that.

Martie Maguire

Music Yin Yard

Songwriting is such a personal thing and it's hard to be in a room with somebody you don't know and trust.

Martie Maguire

Trust You Writing

I play a little acoustic bass and a little guitar. In our house there are instruments everywhere, and I love picking them up and just noodling around. I pick up my husband's tin whistle sometimes. He's really proficient, but it's about the second most annoying instrument - after the banjo - if you don't know how to play it.

Martie Maguire

Time Men Love

I'll be very content if I never play 'Devil Went Down to Georgia' again.

Martie Maguire

Very Tent Ten

My closet CD that I don't admit that I really listen to is Celine Dion. My husband's sister passed away in a car accident, and she was a huge Celine Dion fan. 'It's All Coming Back to Me Now' was her favorite song, so that's kind of my guilty pleasure.

Martie Maguire

Car Way Us

I'm such a worrier.

Martie Maguire

At the Grammys, how many performances were with women playing instruments? Is it still surprising that a female can play an instrument proficiently?

Martie Maguire

Women Men Yin

I'm such an introvert.

Martie Maguire

T Rover Over

I'm amazed when I hear my daughters with their friends. They'll just talk openly about, 'Yeah, he used to be a girl and now he's a boy.' It gives me a lot of hope... It's so matters of fact. It's like they're saying blue and yellow make green. I love that.

Martie Maguire

We spent three years of active trying before we went to IVF. First I went on Clomid. Then I had some dye tests and found I had a collapsed tube, so I had laparoscopic surgery; the tube wasn't blocked, just spasming.

Martie Maguire

I really have aproblem with the fact that insurance companies don't see infertility as a medical condition requiring coverage. I do want there to be some pressure on the insurance companies.

Martie Maguire

It's such a strong drive for women, knowing you were meant to be a mom. We would have gone into debt, done whatever, exhausted all the options, to get there. But a lot of women have to give up on that dream because they can't afford it.

Martie Maguire

I love the tone of old, non-amplified, real acoustic fiddles, and Wood Violins are the closest thing I have found to that sound. They play beautifully!

Martie Maguire

I think people in the public eye have a problem - they can have security issues.

Martie Maguire

You know, I think it's something I want to teach my children, to ask questions and not be afraid to disagree with people in power. Always question, scrutinize everything they do, because they are leading the country, and it's important to me. That is patriotic.

Martie Maguire

I just was raised always to question and be as informed as I can be.

Martie Maguire

I used to be a big 'Star Search' fan. I think it's great people who have a music dream have a place to showcase their talent.

Martie Maguire

Any time the Chicks want to play, that takes precedence, because we can make a lot of money.

Martie Maguire

Nobody has one band anymore. They've got two and three and four!

Martie Maguire

In the beginning, if you look at those early label albums of the Chicks, we didn't write all that much. We had an A&R person and they were getting songs from publishers, listening to hours and hours of cassette tapes.

Martie Maguire

It's not like we were setting out to make a political statement - we're just a band with opinions.

Martie Maguire

We have to make a living and you can't do that playing bluegrass.

Martie Maguire

SXSW is all about the music and the collaboration.

Martie Maguire

Especially after the Chicks' success, it's hard to think of starting over.

Martie Maguire

We've played music all our lives.

Martie Maguire

The Court Yard Hounds aren't a threat to the Dixie Chicks.

Martie Maguire

We love performing, we love touring.

Martie Maguire

I would never go on 'Dancing With the Stars,' because I'm not the greatest dancer in the world. But when I watch 'The Apprentice' sometimes I'm like, 'I could do that task.' The only reason I would not do that is that I could never call people for money and on that show you have to be willing to call people for money.

Martie Maguire

I didn't realize how polarized an industry like music can be.

Martie Maguire

We grew up in the South, but in a very liberal household - both our parents are from the Northeast.

Martie Maguire

I was just oblivious to the fact that the country scene was socially backward and politically opposite of everything I am.

Martie Maguire

So many young kids are fickle when it comes to music. There comes a time when you're not cool again.

Martie Maguire

We're just trying to make good music.

Martie Maguire

You get your time in the limelight but you don't know how long it's going to last. It's great, but you have to put up with a lot.

Martie Maguire

We do appreciate that we have a very conservative audience and we do try to walk the fine line of that and not offend anybody.

Martie Maguire

Fifteen-year-old LeAnn Rimes singing about commitment? You want to go, 'Yeah, right.'

Martie Maguire

You can't just keep bottling the same thing over and over again and think the audience isn't going to catch on.

Martie Maguire

While we were promoting 'Wide Open Spaces,' we set aside time to write. We went on several writing retreats where nobody could get hold of us. It was the only way we could take a step back and reflect and write and be living a semi-normal life for a while.

Martie Maguire