I've always struggled so much just to appreciate myself.

You know, it's just tough to get together and do work with somebody.

I love to sing. It's the easiest thing for me to do.

I mean, I'm not unhappy, but there's still so much I want to do.

In my thirties, I felt I had hold of one of the reins some of the time.

Being a singer is a way for me to get to a platform to do more.

Getting a degree, being on Sesame Street... those were like real accomplishments to me.

But really, we also need to learn how to love one another as women. How to appreciate and respect each other.

Walking through this life really is walking through fire.

I remember seeing the movie 'To Sir With Love' when I was a little girl.

Well. I'm probably not loving myself like I should, but I'm really trying.

I like to work spontaneously.

Everyone in my family sang, and we would always sing these songs.

To me, this degree was an acknowledgment of my work in music.

When I was in my twenties, it felt like I was riding wild horses, and I was hoping I didn't go over a cliff.

My philosophy is familiarity breeds contempt.

I'd been in a vicious cycle and circle of people and couldn't see my way out. So I picked myself up one day about 15 years ago and moved where I didn't know anyone.

I've always struggled so much just to appreciate myself.

I'd like to work on putting art programs back in schools.

There are a lot of people I would have liked to have collaborated with, and would still like to.

One of the album's songs features Mary J. Blige, but I don't want to talk too much about it yet. I think you will hear the music that's been playing in my head when it comes out.

If I love a song, I make it mine.

I think the whole reason for my life is in there somewhere.

Good wine, well drunk, can lend majesty to the human spirit.

I want to be a champion for the people I have fought for all my life - regular people.

I went to an amazing school in Brooklyn called St. Anne's that's a really kind of creative hot bed.

I'm a lot more self-confident than I used to be. To some extent I owe that to my children and my husband.

Factions are a sign of illness in a party.

He who wishes to secure the good of others has already secured his own.

In any economy, the entire population is supported by the part of it that is working. All other things being equal, it thus follows that the most attractive acquisition a society can have is a young adult, whose childhood and education has already been paid for, but whose entire working life still lies ahead.

Every man has his own destiny: the only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him.

On 'Into The Wild' I spent months risking my life and on 'Speed Racer' I spent 60 days acting in front of a green screen. No danger to my physical self, but I sure had to use my imagination.

My family are doctors and pilots and people involved in indigenous First Nation land rights; not overtly artistic.

I believe that companies are, above all, agents of transformation.

Among the thousand-and-one faces whereby form chooses to reveal itself to us, the one that fascinates me more than any other, and continues to fascinate me, is the structure hidden in mathematical things.

The homeland affects you directly: it affects your body; it affects the collective mind and the collective heart and the collective spirit.

I take these vitamins that make my hair grow like crazy. They're called Herpanacine, and I get them on Amazon - they've got echinacea and vitamins A and E. They're really good for your immune system, too. You don't get sick, and they really help your skin, hair, and nails.

All gamblers lose regularly, but they rarely discuss it in public. Losing is bad for the image, dude. Nobody buys Hot Tips from Losers. Remember that.

'The Piano' ended up on television. Everything ends up there anyway.

I love writing songs. I love doing my radio show and talking to the fans and listening to what they have to say, but there's a certain responsibility that comes along with being given the gift of music. I take that seriously, but at the same time I try to use it to do something that makes a difference in a positive way.

We have new ways to be born, humane and symbolic ways to die, different ways to be rich... new ways to be human and to discover what we are to each other.

After lengthy consideration, my views have evolved sufficiently to support marriage equality legislation. This position doesn't require any religious denomination to alter any of its tenets; it simply forbids government from discrimination regarding who can marry whom.

The abortion issue has intersected with my public life from the very beginning.

It is the utmost necessity that this congress be a congress of unity.

I don't want to be known as a sex symbol. There's a great stigma that goes with that tag. I want to be a Sam Elliott.

The biggest message I have for young women is, Don't start cutting off branches of your career tree unnecessarily early. Sometimes women say, I know I want to have a family or play in the local symphony, and they start pulling themselves out of their career path. You don't have to take yourself out of the running before you even start.

I like to have fun in the ring, but I knock them out.