"You aren't going to call me a folksinger, are you?"

That's how legendary singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell starts an interview with V magazine (issue 93; out Thursday).

"You aren't going to say that I'm like the female Bob Dylan - or worse - a singer-songwriter, are you? I'm liable in interviews to get frustrated and become stupidly boastful. I just want things to be acknowledged. It's like, don't make me say it."

Mitchell is having a moment - maybe because of the release of Love Has Many Faces: A Quartet, a Ballet, Waiting to Be Danced - a four-disc box set that includes 53 songs from the past 40 years of her career.

She's also the new face of Yves St. Saint Laurent, part of the fashion house's Music Project.

Mitchell, 71, was photographed for the campaign by Saint Laurent Creative Director Hedi Slimane, who also shot her for for V.

The artist prefers the creative part of music much more than the album release part.

She tells V: "It's like you give birth to a baby and everyone agrees that it was this lovely experience and then afterwards someone stands up and says, 'What an ugly baby.'"

For this new release, Mitchell tells the magazine, she has a clear idea about how she wants fans and critics to view the work:

"I'm hoping that people will see that the music - whether it's early or late - has a continuity in it. It's really not so shockingly different over time. Also, I've got 24-year-old Joni going up against 65-year-old Joni. There will be someone out there I suppose who makes an unfavorable contrast between the younger voice and the older voice, but to me both of those singers are delivering their lines correctly."