I do the things I like to do. It's sort of a bigger version of having more than one hobby.

Well, my dad was the district attorney of New Orleans for about 30 years.

New Orleans is my essence, my soul, my muse...

With a tone so rich, I would never be afraid of the dark. Steinway is the only and the best!

There are people who can't stand me, they say, 'God, he makes me sick', or, 'He's creepy', but it doesn't affect me too badly.

'The Christmas Song,' by Nat King Cole, is not only a masterful performance; to me it just sounds like the holidays. I've never sung it, because Nat's version is so perfect. I gotta leave it alone.

With imagination, I'll get there.

It is jazz music that called me to be a musician and I have always sang the songs that moved me the most.

Safety's just danger, out of place.

In my life I find that memories of the spirit linger and sweeten long after memories of the brain have faded.

Golf is good, it means I get some fresh air and exercise, take my mind off work and see some of the landscape of the place I'm visiting.

Maybe family were the people who came looking for you when you were lost.

What makes a family is neither the absence of tragedy nor the ability to hide from misfortune, but the courage to overcome it and, from that broken past, write a new beginning.

Some broken vases can still hold beautiful flowers

The minute I leave my house - that is where I feel safe - I'm immediately in the jungle. The key is to survive through the cold world.

Do not confuse fantasy with imagination; the former consumes itself in daydreaming, the latter stimulates creativity in the arts and in the sciences.

We are always children to our mothers.

As critical acclaim and response has built up, every interview I give is a chance to puncture the myth I've created about my work and refine it.

I really care about my readers. I care about anyone who reads my books.

I like spontaneity and intelligence in a girl. Nothing is more attractive to me than someone who has a good sense of who she is and can hold her own in a conversation.

The Noah rule: Predicting rain doesn't count; building arks does.