Hey, maybe I can sing locally and earn a couple of bucks.

I think that's the role of an artist, right? To touch someone and make us stretch out just a little bit more.

In an abusive relationship - we'll talk about men and women - women are often restrained, by words or out of fear, from leaving. They will tolerate abuse up to and including being put to death.

I just kind of tried to stay true to myself.

I just love music. I love all kinds of music, and I was exposed to it, me and my siblings, from the time we were in utero.

Once I started singing, I realized it was a language I'd forgotten I could speak.

To be up on stage and interacting with musicians, that was a huge epiphany for me.

I've never been the type of singer that can sing in heels and the gown and all this stuff, because I can't get to where I want to go while I'm in that getup.

You have to be willing to look a certain way, and hold your body a certain way, until you get to where you want to go - I'm talking about musically, now.

There's a certain place you want to get to, and in order to do that, you have to be vulnerable.

I often compare singing to lovemaking because there's so many similarities.

She slept with wolves without fear, for the wolves knew a lion was among them.

She asks me how my heart is, and I say, 'beating.'That's never the answer you want, and I am sorry about that.

Don’t judge people in their reduced circumstances, nobody aspires to be there.

You cannot change anything in your life with intention alone, which can become a watered-down, occasional hope that you'll get to tomorrow. Intention without action is useless.

People have a hard time believing that, but not having a father around, being shy, I just never participated in sports much.

Whenever I eat a meal, I always leave the last bite on my plate. I don't know why, it's just a thing with me.

Private charity discourages poverty while public subsidies encourage it.

I'm okay with standing in my way and in turn allowing it to impede my progress, but I'm okay with the struggle of overcoming obstacles despite myself.

In every seed of good there is always a piece of bad.

I discovered shooting and filmmaking around the time all of the software became affordable to anyone with a PC.