I usually have an idea of how I want a song to sound, but I don't always know how to get there.

In so many interviews, they bring up the sexual aspect of the record. I've had some journalists say it sounds like I'm lying down in bed singing with a microphone. It gets so old!

I guess you could write a good song if your heart hadn't been broken, but I don't know of anyone whose heart hasn't been broken.

I usually have an idea of how I want a song to sound, but I don't always know how to get there.

It's really about living in your head... just looking out at the world, then going back into your head and tossing around a lot of ideas and coming out with something interesting to say.

So few people are truly themselves when they're in the spotlight.

I'd rather play a few nights at the Fillmore than play one night at an arena.

I write first for myself as a therapeutic process, to get stuff out and to deal with it.

I feel a lot more comfortable being me these days. I'm constantly told that my work is good. A lot of fans and a lot of other artists say my songs and albums mean a lot to them. Isn't that what's important?

If you come into success too soon, you'll burn out and be finished before you know it. If you let the maturation process happen naturally, you'll be happier with yourself in the end.

I'm trying to learn how to tap into the power of my own being. I know it sounds corny.

The more I separate myself from my upbringing, the more I appreciate what it's done for me.

I just broke up with my boyfriend, and I've been spending more time alone than I'd like.

I have to try different things to see what works best. Other people get impatient with that.

You should put time into learning your craft. It seems like people want success so quickly, way before they're ready.

I am trying to get right with God. I'm sort of making a statement about the excessiveness.

I'm not just a doormat. I'm not just being stepped on all over the place. If you look at the bulk of my material, it's about trying to find some strength through that.

I've had trouble being in relationships and writing. This has been a real problem for me. I don't know if it's because I'm not free to fantasize or create these fantasy things about other people.

I'm fascinated by the whole concept of snake handling. When you read about the Pentecostal snake handlers, what strikes you the most is their commitment.

I'm just like everyone. I like to feel togetherness with someone.

Some of their best songs don't have bridges and choruses. So that made me think I should trust my instincts. My songs were okay, I figured. I didn't need to change anything.

I don't mean to complain. I wouldn't trade my life for anything.

We just did a few takes of a song and just picked the best one. It was real organic and genuine.

I'm dealing with things as they come along, and I'm talking about it.

You can't really praise somebody's work and then criticize the process.

I started writing more with my voice in mind.

People let their own hang-ups become the obstacles between them and personal happiness.

I have such a great band. We had played all this material on the road. I just wanted to let it fly.

The old jazz singers or old blues singers, you always just saw them kind of sitting down and singing. They weren't worried as much about their voice sounding perfect. They would make the song kind of fit their voice.

I mean, whose songs don't focus on tragedy and loss?

Sade's stuff is real deceptive. She's got stuff about prostitutes, poverty and people on the streets.

I'm trying to get out of my own way.

The man I lived with is a Christian, so I would talk to him about it. What would this person do in the Bible? What's the story around this person? Generally, when people talk about characters in the Bible, there's one thing they're known for, like Job.

I grew up in a very literate, very independent household where people spoke their ideas and were very supportive of helping each other find their own way.

Just because I'm talking about something that might have been a sad or painful situation doesn't mean that I'm sad or tortured 24 hours a day any more than anybody else is.

I'm going to have my moody times.

There's so many other things to write about than unrequited love.

The thing about Alzheimer's is that it's it's sort of like all these little, small deaths along the way, before they actually physically die.

You should put time into learning your craft. It seems like people want success so quickly way before theyre ready.

I became hooked on the idea of being able to shoot an image and process it myself, and end up with a product.

After I'd produced about two dozen pen and ink drawings, one evening I decided that they needed poems to accompany them. I still have no idea where that notion came from, but it took me about two hours to produce verses for these creatures.

Yeah, that's what kind of, we get the idea a little bit yeah, because other people from different countries also try as hard as they can to get a medal or a gold medal in the Olympic Games. And you know, if they can work hard, we can work hard as well.

What's fascinating is that when you write a script, it's almost a stream of consciousness. You have an idea that it means something, but you're not always sure what. Then when you get on the set, the actors teach you.

I also do not like the idea of soft money, these issue ads - people don't know where the money is coming from, millions and millions of dollars outside of the control of a candidate - there's no accountability.

From the beginning, the series has been story driven - I began with a story idea - but research feeds it.

Then I decided I couldn't just crawl in the corner and die, so I started putting pen to paper and wrote some songs. I had no idea what for or who I was going to work with. I tried to find my way and direction.

The idea is, if I can't heal from my art, then how can you heal?

There is sometimes a peculiar confusion in the West that equates progress to whatever is recent or whatever is new, and it is time we understood that progress has nothing to do with the chronology of an idea.

The idea of licking stamps seemed great fun for me.