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

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.

The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity.

The experience of democracy is like the experience of life itself-always changing, infinite in its variety, sometimes turbulent and all the more valuable for having been tested by adversity.

Nothing is harder to direct than a man in prosperity; nothing more easily managed that one is adversity.

Something called 'the Oklahoma Standard' became known throughout the world. It means resilience in the face of adversity. It means a strength and compassion that will not be defeated.

Three hundred years ago a prisoner condemned to the Tower of London carved on the wall of his cell this sentiment to keep up his spirits during his long imprisonment: 'It is not adversity that kills, but the impatience with which we bear adversity.

It is courage, courage, courage, that raises the blood of life to crimson splendor. Live bravely and present a brave front to adversity.

By adversity are wrought the greatest works of admiration, and all the fair examples of renown, out of distress and misery are grown.

Constant success shows us but one side of the world; adversity brings out the reverse of the picture.

There is in every woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.

He knows not his own strength that has not met adversity.

Adversity has the same effect on a man that severe training has on the pugilist: it reduces him to his fighting weight.

You'll never find a better sparring partner than adversity.

One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.

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

Weak minds sink under prosperity as well as adversity; but strong and deep ones have two high tides.

The firmest of friendships have been formed in mutual adversity, as iron is most strongly united by the fiercest flame.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.