Give me life, give me pain, give me myself again.
I don't know if the average person really has faith in Washington anymore.
People out there must be told about the self-loathing that follows rape and how it's the greatest breakage in divine law to mutilate themselves, as I have done.
My favorite saying is, 'If it's too loud, turn it up.'
The world that we all knew before, could wake up in feeling safe... now it seems that everything has been turned upside down.
You know that saying, bad things don't happen to good people? That's a lie.
Our generation has an incredible amount of realism, yet at the same time it loves to complain and not really change. Because, if it does change, then it won't have anything to complain about.
Some people are afraid of what they might find if they try to analyze themselves too much, but you have to crawl into your wounds to discover where your fears are. Once the bleeding starts, the cleansing can begin.
I think even in a good marriage, especially if you stay together long enough, there are going to be events that happen.
Being able to still make records is a privilege. I don't take it casually.
My childhood was extreme.
There's room for everybody on the planet to be creative and conscious if you are your own person. If you're trying to be like somebody else, then there is isn't.
Not everybody wants to have the same career. I think what's difficult is when you have two people that do something very, very similar and they both, say, want the limelight. That's very tricky.
I think doing variations on a classical theme is a dangerous thing to do.
The violence betwen women is unbelievable. Women try to make each other crawl so that their knees are bleeding.
I've been known to throw watermelons, backstage, at people who are giving me news I don't want to hear. But I never aim for the head.
The fact that religion plays such a part in how people vote troubles me, troubles me as a minister's daughter. Because I always felt that the separation of church and state was what our forefathers and foremothers really fought for.
I've had to keep exploring different ways of presenting the music so I don't repeat myself.
I don't kid around.
You don't leave people who can't defend themselves.
I want to be an integrated woman.
People assume that all artists make for terrible business people, but I'm in complete charge of my own career.
You can be self-empowered and still learning about how you think about things daily.
My father was a preacher in Maryland and we had crab feasts - with corn on the cob, but no beer, being Methodist - outside on the church lawn.
When I was little, my mom tells me, I used to say things like, 'Mom do you hear the string section? Do you hear the string section?' And she would look at me and say, 'No honey, I don't know what you're talking about.'
If you are a nurturing mother, and a good one, you can go to play groups, sit on the floor and play all the games, and have tea with the other mothers, but wouldn't you like to think that's not all there is? That you haven't hung up your high heels without knowing how to walk in them?
I'm a mother, and that's really important. Today, the mother and the musician can sit next to each other. Even when the musician is out there in full swing, the mother doesn't get switched off.
I've carved out a career for myself really as a writer.
I think you need to have people around you whose standard is high and who don't accept anything less.
I'm a conduit for telling people's stories. It's a privilege.
Some people say, I'd give anything to be 30 again. Well, I really wouldn't. I didn't enjoy being 30.
I am the worst influence. If you can't handle your vices, then I am the Devil.
My husband doesn't know what my songs are about - even when they're about him. He's very British in that way. He doesn't ask, and he doesn't want to be told.
There are ways to stimulate being prolific, and part of that is making pilgrimages, and being open to listening, changing up the routine.
A lot of the carols were not as you hear them now.
My father was strict, but he recognised my ability and got a lot of flak from the church for supporting me.
Things go wrong all the time; you can't be precious about it.
I know people sometimes have this fantasy about Cornwall. But the Cornish are so grounded.
I'm not like a poker player. I'm not into bluff. My way is to look someone in the eye and tell them the way I'm intending to go. My cards are always on the table.
My father has a pragmatic mind. He marched with Dr. King in the '60s, and he's very much for women's rights.
I'm not not going to stop giving away what I feel about something.
My mother says I was two-and-a-half when I started playing. My father was a minister, and when he went to church in the morning, she would put on Fats Waller, Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole and Cole Porter records. I'd crawl up on the piano stool, sit on a phone book and play.
If I was writing songs just for me I'd only play them in my living room, alone.
I felt sidelined by the industry, by the preoccupation with finding something newer, younger.
I don't feel I'm as good a mum as my mum was.
My parents think I'm better under pressure.
Cornwall is one of the most beautiful places, with great people - there's not a great downside to it.
I would love to compose something for dance before I kick the bucket, and I'm not closed-minded about the dance, or the dance company. I would really just love to collaborate on that.
I have so many different personalities in me and I still feel lonely.
