I don't think you need to dumb down to a child, you merely have to be clear, you know?

So I think that if I do feel more freedom right now in my career, it's not so much because I have less at stake but more a sense that I've learned more.

I think that every new record is a chance to... I think what it is for me is my heart and soul at that moment in time... I've always felt that just being able to make a record is a privilege.

My sisters and I were fortunate to travel through Asia and Europe at very young ages. We confronted extraordinary beauty in Athens and unspeakable poverty in India.

Dreamland is a book, but it's my song in book form. It's translated itself into a different medium.

It's a pretty frantic world that we live in.

There's timing. And then there's also certain people at the record company who worked incredibly hard and were incredibly enthusiastic about what I was doing.

It's a marvelous feeling when someone says 'I want to do this song of yours' because they've connected to it. That's what I'm after.

It's like the code of living by yourself. People who are single know what I'm talking about. You eat standing up, reading the paper. Or you say to yourself, this isn't even cutting it, I'm taking a TV dinner and I'm getting in bed here.

So I came home and I had a resume and everything, but the only job experience I had was just playing in bars and clubs on my summers off. So, I was temping and stuff during the day and playing music at night.

About age ten, we moved from the place where I was born, moved overseas.

You know, I didn't have enough money to quit my day job... the myth of the major label deal. Nowadays, you have a tour bus and a stylist and all this stuff. But back then, no way.

I'm a liberal arts junkie.

I've never... when I was having songs on the airwaves, and that sort of thing, I never felt a sense of pressure anywhere except from myself, to do things the way I wanted to do them; to feel authentic; to feel like I was presenting my true self to the world.

I went to college and I never allowed myself to think for an instant that I would have this chance to do this.

When I think of the artists I admire and seek out musically. It's because I'm curious about where they're going to go the next time they have a chance to put a record out. It's not about where I find them on the radio dial, or how many records they're selling.

I was a liberal arts junkie and I figured, well, I'll go work for somebody somewhere. All I knew was that I was going to have to come home and figure it out.

As far as feeling freedom in my career now versus five years ago... I think if I feel any more free it's simply because of the experiences that I've had, and the wisdom I've accumulated from that time.

I don't think you need to dumb down to a child, you merely have to be clear, you know?

Emmy Lou Harris introduced me to the work of the Vietnam Veterans of America foundation and the Campaign for a Land Mine Free World.

You know, that single girl life and that sense of isolation - that doesn't leave you just like that. And that's what that song is about. I remember that, and that is imprinted on me, that sense.

I kept thinking, I went to college and I have to get a real job.

I don't really remember my folks singing to us, but they read to us.

In this world youve a soul for a compass and a heart for a pair of wings.

Years ago in my hometown I was a headstrong girl and a heart strong one. Wed ride all summer with the top rolled down through the sleepy streets of that Jersey town.

If a man is dumb, someone is going to get the best of him, so why not you? If you don't, you're as dumb as he is.

Too clever is dumb.

Innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering the world, meaning no harm.

I hate it when people talk about Buffy as being campy... I hate camp, I don't enjoy dumb TV. I believe Aaron Spelling has single-handedly lowered SAT scores.

You see a lot of smart guys with dumb women, but you hardly ever see a smart woman with a dumb guy.

Generally speaking, actors are allowed NO input. Actors are dumb.

They are damn good projects - excellent projects. That goes for all the projects up there. You know some people make fun of people who speak a foreign language, and dumb people criticize something they do not understand, and that is what is going on up there - God damn it!

I mean, Eighteen years old is the age of consent in Europe and you can go anywhere and do anything you like. In America, it is dumb. At eighteen you should be able to do anything that you like, except get married.

I have been primarily interested in how and why ordinary people do unusual things, things that seem alien to their natures. Why do good people sometimes act evil? Why do smart people sometimes do dumb or irrational things?

Maybe these kids are just too young and too dumb to know about the first 13. Maybe they can't comprehend that the Braves have only won one World Series in those 13 years.

I'm stupid, I'm ugly, I'm dumb, I smell. Did I mention I'm stupid?

You have to get the audience invested even if you're doing something that they think is dumb, it's kind of what these movies are all about.

Elvis is not so difficult as Johnny Cash because his voice is so distinctive. If you try to copy Johnny Cash, it's just going to sound dumb.

I'm not dumb. I just have a command of thoroughly useless information.

My obstetrician was so dumb that when I gave birth he forgot to cut the cord. For a year that kid followed me everywhere. It was like having a dog on a leash.

None of us are really dumb and none of us are really smart. We're in the middle.

Would it not be much better to have a president who deliberately lied to the people because he thought a war was essential than to have one who was so dumb as to be taken in by intelligence agencies, especially those who told him what he wanted to hear?

Striving to tell his woes, words would not come; For light cares speak, when mighty griefs are dumb.

I'd played dumbasses a lot. On Mad About You, I played a very dumb waitress and they saw me.

Well, he can't be dumb, I mean, because he's been president for four years and he's president again, so you're going to get caught out if you're really bad, aren't you? Unless millions and millions of Americans are dumb.

God hears no more than the heart speaks; and if the heart be dumb, God will certainly be deaf.

Blonde is dumb comedy, red hair is smart, sexy comedy.

Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it's important.

The biggest threat to McDonald's lies within - and that is us as a company becoming complacent. There are a lot of companies that get fat, dumb and happy and take their eye off the ball and forget about serving customers.