My journals tell the real story of what went on, like the way things changed after Bella Donna came out. No one in the band ever said a word to me about my solo career. They were keeping quiet for their own best interests. They knew if they ripped Bella Donna apart, I wouldn't give them any more songs. Remember, Dreams ~ which is just me ~ is the only gold single that Fleetwood Mac ever had.
~Stevie Nicks, Details Magazine, August 1994

Journal Entry: Monday Night, The Forum [1981]
If only for a moment, I shall tell you what it was to be a part of the Heartbreakers tonight, to be so proud that your heart breaks, to hold onto Adria Petty and to watch her dance, and to tell her that it is imperative that she tell her father how good he was and that she danced on the stage for her first time, I knew that Bruce Springsteen would have been proud of her. She has the moves down.

Needles and Pins was good. I feel that Tom and I are better than that, but then we are just beginning. And we will just get better. Gordon said it was Don and Phil. Dear Gordon was our love forthe Everly Brothers, it could have been faster, and we will certainly get stronger, but if it was nothing else, it was Tom and I, and Tom and I have the potential to be a stroke of genius, inside us, within us, we certainly can sing. Together, we can sing anything. We can sing whatever it is that is important to us.

Singing with Tom and being a guest of the Heartbreakers has only made me see clearly that I want my own band. I do not want a band of musicians who play for the money. I want a band of angels who play for the love. I am not selfish. I do not want the glory of being a queen. I want a band with Lori and Sharon and Waddy and Russell and Bob and Benmont and Roy and Bobby and Davey and anyone else that wants to be in it, and really just whoever wants to be a part of this. I am willing to share it, and I ask very little of anyone. I only ask that you be the best band that you can be. It was only luck.

And as she sits at her typewriter like Lillian Hellman and she cries, 'Julia, my friend, my guide and my counselor,' and as Julia becomes part of the ocean and her friendship's only part of the memory and she fights and hangs onto a thread of life that has become daily more important to her because it is, to her, her lifeline. And as Adria Petty looks up at me with love and trust and expectations of me, I make my choice. I make my decision. When the singer is gone, let the song live on.
~Stevie Nicks reading from her journal, 1981

My sister-in-law found my journals from the Tusk tour. Tragedy and drugs make incredible writing. Would you like to see them? [She brings in a pile of velvet-covered books. She opens one and flips through the pages, some of which are tearstained. Others have drawings of birds, flowers, stars. She reads:] 'August 24, 1977...One more time, on the plane. As usual, Lindsey is his usual asshole self. I am slowly coming to the conclusion that Lindsey and I are at an end. So sad to see good love go bad....Seattle. Worried about Christine. Wishing some spiritual guidance would come from somewhere. Where are the crystal visions when I need them?'

As I'm writing prose, I'm also writing songs. 'Gather the curtains, gather the darkness, gather me if only for a moment, gather the seconds for soon it could be going, gather the blessings, for the years are showing.'
~Stevie Nicks, Harpers Bazaar, November 1997

A musical western, and we all play the parts.
But when the play is over, what do you do?
Become overnight casual friends?
You can lose your dreams or keep them.
And the unridden horses ride away.
The sons of the prophets are deeply, deeply hurt.
Your chances of returning to your past are gone.
Your hero's are dying.
The old ones. The great ones.
The ones you looked up to aren't looking so good anymore.
And the ones growing up are crazier than we were.
But a war can always be won.
Well, if there is the sense in trying.
Not much is really a secret anymore.
We all grow up and the veils come down.
But the children go on.
~Stevie Nicks reading from her journal, 1989

I go home from every tour with a binder full of journalistic prose of the tour, and then also a lot of poetry. [Some of the poetry may eventually become songs, and some it may not. But her tour journals are meant for a specific audience -- her band.] They don't know that I'm writing this every night, I don't show them until the end of the tour. Then I have it bound into a little book, and I give it to everybody.
~Stevie Nicks, The Sun, July 17, 1991

[Do you keep a journal with you wherever you go?] Oh yes, absolutely.
~Stevie Nicks Interview, WMGK Radio, July 1998

I came here for a reason. I didn't come here to be a mother. I didn't come here to be a nun. And I did not come here to be a cleaning lady. I came here to be a poet.
~Stevie Nicks, Jim Ladd Innerview, 1983

On the 4th day of compassion I was impressed to write a poem about aids and about the angel that I do believe in my heart is there for us! I call her the 'passageway angel'. The next night I typed it up from my notes, and added the last verse.

And walking through the
Room together
In suspended animation
No one saw us go
No one said goodbye
And from my heart
I leave behind
Great expectations
And that you find the answers
To your questions
And that life will once more
Be a celebration
And that you
Will be touched
By an angel

This song holds a very special place in my heart. I hope you enjoy it!
~Stevie Nicks, www.nicksfix.com, 2001

My poetry is all about the big picture. You may not understand some of it, but hopefully you will understand what I'm trying to say by the time you get to the end of the song.
~Stevie Nicks, Ask Stevie, www.nicksfix.com, 2000