Paula Cole

If not for music, I would probably be a very frustrated scientist. It's one way to answer the question, 'What is the meaning of life?' I feel music answers it better.

Our planet is a tiny atom in god's kingdom.

Walking is magic. Can't recommend it highly enough. I read that Plato and Aristotle did much of their brilliant thinking together while ambulating. The movement, the meditation, the health of the blood pumping, and the rhythm of footsteps... this is a primal way to connect with one's deeper self.

I hope and believe we are paving a better future for female artists to come.

The monsters are in your own head

I'm used to adversity and working really well in difficult situations. It was hard for me to accept the success.

I'm accepting I'm not living that younger, dreamed version of myself in the big city.

I like doing the crossword puzzle in the New York Times, not watching E! on TV.

But looking back, the fact was that I had a couple of big hits too quickly and it was simply too much for an introvert like me to handle.

The flower has opened, has been in the sun and is unafraid. I'm taking more chances; I'm bold and proud.

But at the age of 44, I sure hope to be a better businesswoman. I want to get the music straight to my fans.

I'm glad I made a piece of art that can be interpreted so widely. Art is always interpreted subjectively.

For me music is a vehicle to bring our pain to the surface, getting it back to that humble and tender spot where, with luck, it can lose its anger and become compassion again.

I don't like to sit and bask in my own awards. Awards represent artistic death to me.

I think of my shows as family reunions. I give 100% every time. I just do. It's a huge therapeutic release. Also I love my touring family. And I love my audiences very much.

Being a writer is a very private, internal process. Ultimately I am more the writer, being an introvert.

I wanted to be a cheerleader, like my sister was - all the most popular and beautiful girls are cheerleaders and I wanted that, and it demolished this vision of myself. That's when I found the piano, when music saved me; that's when I first attempted to write my own songs.

When you're a plebeian you want success, and when you're successful you want to be a plebeian again.

Just watching my cats can make me happy.

I've left Bethlehem, and I feel free. I've left the girl I was supposed to be, and some day I'll be born.

I think it's important to find the little things in everyday life that make you happy.

People have become less discriminating listeners, which is tragic, really. There's a lot of emperor's new clothes out there, whether they're female or male solo acts. That bothers me. It's hard to break through, and it's like climbing Mount Everest if you actually do.

I find that the older I get, the more I see that there really aren't huge zeniths of happiness or a huge abyss of darkness as much as there used to be.

The older I get, the more I see that there really aren't huge zeniths of happiness or a huge abyss of darkness as much as there used to be. I tend to walk a middle ground.

Feminists were psyched that I had armpit hair.

I was curious and hungry at a young age, and jazz was such a mystery to me, an ocean where you can express yourself in the moment. It represented freedom, it represented wearing wings and going somewhere with music.

The monsters are in your own head.

I struggled with being in the public eye, losing my anonymity when my star rose quickly in the late 90's. But I need the challenge of showing up and getting up there to spill my guts and connect with my loyal folks.

I'm a songwriter who's put my childhood memories and teenage angst into songs.

Didgeridoo was something I picked up while I was on tour in Australia with Peter Gabriel in '93. I found out later that it's only meant to be played by men.

I see my albums as working diaries, as living scrapbooks of me and my life.