Sarah McLachlan – HuffPost 6.4.14

Mike Ragogna: Sarah, what are some areas where you think artists should be careful or stay aware of?

Sarah McLachlan: [laughs] That’s a long list! Surround yourself with people you can trust; though that in itself is a loaded statement, because how do you know who you can trust? I think it’s about managing and understanding people’s agendas, and having good-quality relationships. What is a good-quality relationship? It’s reciprocal. There’s giving and receiving. When and if you can find people in your life who can help you and are in it for the right reasons… it’s such an intimate dance; it’s like reading a parenting book and saying, “Okay, that’s how I’m going to raise my kid.” It’s far too complex for that. Human relationships are so complex, and everyone is unique and different. So to give advice on a particular relationship without having all the facts, you’re never going to have enough information to really accurately give good advice. Even if you do have all the information, the advice is based on your experience, not theirs. It’s a matter of taking people’s advice, not with a grain of salt necessarily, but just getting a lot of different opinions. Don’t just take one person’s answer at face and say that’s the way it is. The bottom line is we have to educate ourselves and be our own advocate. And in order to do so, we need to ask a whole lot of questions and not take everybody’s answer at face value. When you’re your own advocate and you can have a well-rounded understanding for the reasons you’re doing things, you can look at yourself in the mirror at the end of the day and be proud and say, “I did these things, and I did them for the right reasons, and with a certain degree of responsibility.”