Love Quote by Diana Krall

Krall frames interpretation as both a flex and a truce: she knows exactly what she meant, and she refuses to legislate what anyone else is allowed to hear. The line she paraphrases - "Now you're telling me you love me after all that... shove off" - is blunt, almost comic in its late-arriving romance and the singer's impatience. But what makes it feel like Krall is the restraint. She’s describing an emotional hard stop without performing it as a public execution. In jazz and torch-song tradition, the power often sits in what’s withheld; the voice implies the whole argument, then glides past it.

The subtext is about boundaries and timing. A lover returns with language - love, apologies, promises - and the speaker answers with skepticism, not because she’s cold but because she’s already done the grieving. "After all that" is the whole backstory compressed into three words: the nights you didn't call, the humiliation, the self-repair. When the other person finally arrives with the right sentiment, it’s too late for it to be flattering.

Krall’s second move is the real cultural tell: "I would never 'say' that". She understands songs as public property the moment they leave your mouth. Especially in standards-heavy, interpretive music, authorial intent is less a rule than a private draft. By admitting her reading while protecting everyone else's, she keeps the song open-ended - and keeps the listener’s own history in the driver’s seat.