Sometimes you need to take a departure from what you do to something that’s slightly different in order to get inspiration.

There are ways to stimulate being prolific, and part of that is making pilgrimages, and being open to listening, changing up the routine.

What girls do to each other is beyond description. No chinese torture comes close.

I think you need to have people around you whose standard is high and who don’t accept anything less.

People listen to music the way they want to listen to music.

Adolescence is that time when I think, it can be- it’s the cruelest place on Earth. It can really be heartless.

Give me life, give me pain, give me myself again.

I think doing variations on a classical theme is a dangerous thing to do.

I don’t want to give too much ink to foolish men.

I get painted quite a bit as a tragic figure because of some of the stuff that’s happened in my life.

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.

I have my own parties. They involve being barefoot with a piece of fried chicken and margarita in each hand.

I salute to you Commanderand I sneeze’Cause I have Nowan AllergyTo your policies it seemsWhere have we gone wrong America?Mr. Lincoln we can’t seemto find you anywhere out of the millionsFrom the desertsTo the mountainsOver...

I’m a classic emerald green Sixties Jaguar that nobody can own, but my husband is allowed to drive.

I started playing the piano when I was about two and got a scholarship to the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore when I was five. But I left when I was 11.

Take a different route to the coffee shop to see what you can see and hear. When we get in a routine, we can become zombie-like and shut down. It’s about discipline. You have to...

I’m a conduit for telling people’s stories. It’s a privilege.

Your worst enemies are made when you ignore people. Those boys in America who shot dead classmates recently, didn’t do that because they woke up with a positive self image that morning and then felt...

sleeping beauty/trips me with a frown

I have a great relationship with my mother-in-law. We’re both Leos, we understand each other.

There is a phenomenal amount of pressure on women in this industry: they are considered vintage by the time they hit their mid-30s.

I don’t choose to analyze what I have done and I think that is the right choice, because then I won’t be spending my time creating.

I love the classic crooners, but I got that from my mother – she worked in a record store.

Right now, half the world is depressed and they need to be entertained.

?For the most part, pianos are female to me. Sometimes they’re dykes, and they’re always good fun.

I think everyone understands grief, the journey it takes us on, whether it’s the death of a loved one, the end of a relationship, a disappointment. Some people don’t deal with it, the power of...

My ears are huge. If there’s ever a problem with a plane I’m on, they could just put me on the wing and I’ll land the sucker.

I know people sometimes have this fantasy about Cornwall. But the Cornish are so grounded.

I get tired of wearing the same thing all the time too.

Sometimes it seems like we’re closer to our manicurists than we are our own souls. We have to find ways to get in touch with that and to listen to it and to hear it.

She’s been everybody else’s girl maybe one day she’ll be her own.

Everybody told me this ‘girl on the piano’ thing was never going to work.

Our world is a huge mess right now, and not big enough for masses of intolerant people.

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.

After a while, though, you realize that a whole slew of young singer-songwriter piano players are getting compared to you. That’s when you feel the passage of time is occurring.

I’m driven by the idea of characters and the song-cycle form is similar to a musical.

The word ‘confession,’ to me, means needing to be absolved, … I’m not asking for forgiveness. I’m not asking people to understand. I’d like to think that I tell stories and sometimes my life weaves...

It’s been a thrilling journey – I have had to really learn that an orchestra is an entity – it’s a creature. I have been calling it the dragon and the conductor is the dragon...

There is a time and a place for things. Sometimes one needs to put a filter on oneself. That can be a good thing.

Music is always a reflection of what’s going on in the hearts and minds of the culture.

A lot of songs are derivative of each other.

So the first job that I got – my father got it for me – he had his clerical collar on, was a gay bar in D.C., it was Mr. Henry’s of Georgetown.

You can’t control your popularity; I know I’m an acquired taste – I’m anchovies. And not everybody wants those hairy little things. If I was potato chips, I could go a lot more places, but...

Guys would sleep with a bicycle if it had the right color lip gloss on. They have no shame. They’re like bull elks in a field.

I remember driving to North Carolina when I was a little girl in a snowstorm to get down to my mom’s family in the Carolinas. There were chains on the car – it was the...

I think having a child can really change you if you’re open to it.

I guess my husband is a muse as well.

When I play live, it’s a conversation that we’re all having with the song, and the audience… their response and relationship with the songs is as valid as my relationship with the songs.

Years go by will I still be waiting for somebody else to understand… sometimes I hear my voice and it’s been here, silent all these years…

Strange, i thought i knew you well, thought i had read the sky, thought i had seen a change in your eyes.