"Joni's art - whether in song or picture - is an aspect of self-portraiture. You could be forgiven if you assumed this means she is self-obsessed, but what is most compelling about Mitchell's art is how it turns away from the convolutions of self-gazing and becomes an inquiry into the world around her. If what she's doing is looking in a mirror, then it's a surface on which a crowd of people and incidents are reflected with intensity equal to her own.

"Throughout her amazing career as a songwriter, she has displayed a special skill in creating individuals who wear their hearts on sleeves often frayed at the edges. No female singer/songwriter has charted so intimate a course across popular music: in this regard her peers are Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Van Morrison himself. Mitchell has her own distinct pedigree, she may be the reigning Queen of LA but she comes across in her songs as an experiential pragmatist with a heavy lean on the Romantic. It's clear that she will lean that way forever."

- Robert Enright