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.

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.

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

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.

Love is a clash of lightnings

Les rêves sont seuls les réalités de la vie.

not having a space you can call your own is dangerous. Everyone needs a sanctuary.

Drama is very important in life: You have to come on with a bang. You never want to go out with a whimper. Everything can have drama if it's done right. Even a pancake.

I wonder if the greatest challenges was to keep pressing into [writing] when I had never been here before. I felt like Abraham - being called to something that he didn't know how to get to.

Looking back on the God my friend believed in, he seems a little erratic, not entirely unlike her father - God as borderline personality.

When your mind is flooded with the pure light of nirvana, which is happiness itself, you will be delighted with whatever occurs to you.

But who could bear to know which stars were already dead, she thought, blinking up at the night sky; could anybody stand to know that they all were?

When you look at a strong brand, you see a promise.

At seventeen dreams DO satisfy because you think the realities are waiting for you farther on.