When I do older folk songs, I'm not doing them because they're old. I have no interest in reviving or continuing a tradition. I'm just doing them because they're great songs.

I like to carry around extremely pretentious books, and I don't know if I can read them, but if I hold them near me, it imbues me with a sense of powerful intelligence.

I was listening to this record by Paul Desmond called First Place Again. It's incredibly gorgeous. There is nothing better that you would want to get from music than you get from that record.

I am a complete jazz nerd.

Guitar comes more out of its limitations for me, like putting it in a weird tuning and then just go places.

If I pick up a fiddle, I don't compose on it, so much as I just play whatever.

I'm not really a folk singer, but I love the music and there's certain lines that will get just stuck in my head, and they seem to be stuck there for a reason, and I start singing them.

Reading books is fantastic. I didn't do it until ten years ago. It's great.

Look at your uniqueness and figure out what distinguishes you from the billions of people who inhabit this planet

I'm a huge fan of Steve Martin. He's hilarious, but he has this depth to him and this way of dealing with the difficult things in life with a sense of humor that I think has helped me as an actress.

I ran to my marriage, I was happily ready to take on marriage.

The most significant indicator that there is no disaster in Iraq is the fact that there is no exodus.

Gratitude is the law of increase, and complaint is the law of decrease.

More whites believe in ghosts than believe in racism.

I saw six men kicking and punching the mother-in-law. My neighbour said 'Are you going to help?' I said 'No, six should be enough.'

When I’m alone in my room sometimes I stare at the wall, and in the back of my mind I hear my conscience call.

No nation, no society, no community can hold its head high and claim to be part of the civilized world if it condones the practice of discriminating against one half of humanity represented by women.

I too have my own demons, and I have struggled. I've made my own mistakes, and I'm not proud of them.