I don't believe in nirvana. If nirvana was handed to us on a silver platter, this would be the first day of our struggle to keep it.

You just keep feeding hogwash to people, and pretty soon they'll eat it.

It is essential that men start being interested in and excited by how women think.

Part of keeping space open is not to try to choose a form - to spend more time thinking about content, and let form take care of itself.

Music can be used against us as much as it can be used for us. Muzak can put a whole nation to sleep, whereas a lullaby is intended to put a child to sleep in a sweet way.

My parents had been involved in the labor movement; if we'd grown up in the city, we would have been red-diaper babies.

To my great surprise and pleasure, I have had dinner with most of the people living with whom I would like to have dinner.

Once women are not excluded, I don't think any of us will give a damn what pronouns are used. That wasn't the point.

I don't believe in nirvana. If nirvana was handed to us on a silver platter, this would be the first day of our struggle to keep it.

A lot of artists say, I'm not political. People are afraid of this word.

When an audience comes to one of my concerts, I hope they'll see themselves, somewhere, in one of the songs.

You can't just leave out one part; the bread won't rise if the yeast isn't there.

When we make mistakes, say, I'm blessed that I have an opportunity to learn from this.

I like this life. I like it when it's hard, and I like it better when it's not, but I know you don't get the sweet part without the bitter.

We who are interested in relative truth have to keep digging for it and not let ourselves be sucked under.

It's been important to me to be a good activist, a good thinker, a good musician, a good singer, and a good entertainer. You can't do it all, but I have walked those delicate lines as best I know how.

Language is like songs, like food, like dance-it is the expression of what we think.

When the students were killed at Kent State, the cast voted to do a demonstration from the stage, and I abstained.

To be always in a state of wonder is a kind of sensitivity that can sometimes be an extraordinary blessing and sometimes a real pain.

My parents encouraged thought. You'll get through life better if you learn how to think.

My creativity and my political work are linked. I don't do this work out of guilt or out of responsibility.

To come to a concert and hear a lot of songs from a female perspective should not make men say, 'Oh well, that's for women'.

If I didn't think and feel the way I think and feel, I couldn't sing the way I sing. And I like singing the way I sing.

Leaping away from my mistakes has propelled me forward. It has great force behind it. It makes for great storytelling.

Why do we kill people who are killing people to show that killing people is wrong?

The war on drugs is a war against the communities.

Part of being an artist is being willing to be shocked, being willing to be surprised, being willing to be hurt.

I'm not allowing my perspective to be dictated by the dominant culture.

People love to hear the mistakes you've made.

The women's movement completely changed attitudes all over the world in ways we'll never be able to count.

White middle- and upper-class men have a longer journey to go than many people.

If you have the guts to keep making mistakes, your wisdom and intelligence leap forward with huge momentum.

If you have the guts to keep making mistakes your wisdom and intelligence leap forward with huge momentum.

You can't just leave out one part; the bread won't rise if the yeast isn't there.

I did work out every day. I needed it to have the endurance to do what needed to be done and not get hurt. I have such a new respect for action stars now.

I mean the only thing that is hopefully good about us is after the arguments we can actually still face each other the next day or the day after and talk about something else and sort of get over it.

My favorite singer to this day is Nat King Cole. I've tried to emulate his phrasing. It is so absolutely beautiful to listen to his lovely voice.

I want to have babies one day but not right now. When I do it I want to do it really well. I want it to be my best project in life.

I think I've become a much better singer and a much better player. Years and years of playing a couple of hours every day will do that.

I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day.

I just wrote one song at a time. Kinda like an alcoholic. One day at a time.

Working mothers do an hour more per day than working fathers do and working mothers do on average an hour more per day with the kids than working fathers do.

When it is time to get to work, I go away completely and don't do anything except the work. And that can be 16 hours a day.

George Pal had total control, and he was there on the set every day. You never met a more charming man in your entire lifetime - what a lovely gentleman.

I'll tell you what I did need to learn was tolerance, and I think I've been actually given a daily opportunity to practice that, and it's - it's - and I know that that sounds almost like a backhanded slap, and it is in a way because I haven't been successful at it every day.

Since the beginning, I always loved the game. When you grow up in Montreal, one day you want to be a professional hockey player. When I was six or seven, I knew that was what I wanted.

Depending on what day of the week it is and what time of the month it is, I'm a good friend or not a good friend. I'm more or less a good mom or not a good mom, more or less a good mate or not a good mate. That's just life, whether or not you're public.

Even if you walk exactly the same route each time - as with a sonnet - the events along the route cannot be imagined to be the same from day to day, as the poet's health, sight, his anticipations, moods, fears, thoughts cannot be the same.

A play is much easier to maintain your personal life with because if you're rehearsing, you're working like from 11 to 6 or 11 to 5 and you get to have your whole morning and your whole evening. When you're doing the play, you have all day.