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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

Feminists were psyched that I had armpit hair.

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.

The monsters are in your own head.

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

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

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.

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 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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

The monsters are in your own head

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

I know, to banish anger altogether from one's breast is a difficult task. It cannot be achieved through pure personal effort. It can be done only by God's grace.

Anger is a momentary madness, so control your passion or it will control you.

There is an element of anger among women who've been raped. There's certainly a major element of humiliation. But it really does seem like a medical condition of shock and horror.

Wise anger is like fire from a flint: there is great ado to get it out; and when it does come, it is out again immediately.

The anger that appears to be building up between the sexes becomes more virulent with every day that passes. And far from women taking the blame... the fact is that men are invariably portrayed as the bad guys. Being a good man is like being a good Nazi.

I'm an angry person, angrier than most people would imagine, I get flashes of anger. What works for me is working out when it's useful to use that anger.

Expressing anger is a form of public littering.

Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.

Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.

Anger cannot be dishonest.

The voice of the intelligence is drowned out by the roar of fear. It is ignored by the voice of desire. It is contradicted by the voice of shame. It is biased by hate and extinguished by anger. Most of all it is silenced by ignorance.

When we can lay down our fear and anger and choose responses other than aggression, we create the conditions for bringing out the best in us humans.

I had a lot of anger inside me and that came out at times that were not particularly advantageous to me career-wise.

A lot of my humor does come from anger. It's like, you're not gonna pull one over on me - which is pretty much my motto anyways.

I really believe that all of us have a lot of darkness in our souls. Anger, rage, fear, sadness. I don't think that's only reserved for people who have horrible upbringings. I think it really exists and is part of the human condition. I think in the course of your life you figure out ways to deal with that.

I have not lost faith in God. I have moments of anger and protest. Sometimes I've been closer to him for that reason.

I love each and every one of you but, like my own family, you thrill, you frustrate, you anger.