I don't talk about Amy Winehouse as a 'singer.' She's a pioneer. I listened to her endlessly when I started writing.

I like pastels and lighter shades on darker skins. I feel like it lifts everything and accentuates being chocolate.

I respect hippos. They just look the way they do; they can't do anything about it, but they don't seem bothered.

I love church buildings, particularly cathedrals, and I like living in spaces that remind me of music or evoke that creative energy.

My songs are very personal, which means they are fantastically therapeutic to write, but performing them night after night is emotionally draining.

Who made you the center of the universe?

Taxi drivers used to ask me what kind of music I did, and I'd say, 'Well, it's kind of jazz, soul, classical' - but that makes no sense to anyone.

My parents encouraged us to commit to things, so if we wanted to learn an instrument, it was all the grades and all the theory.

I write songs from the heart, and I don't hold back.

I always said when I was younger, I wanted to write film music, and I think that's what my ultimate dream is.

I really love jazz, but I will never be a jazz musician as much as I dream. But, I think that the jazz music I love is there in my music.

Those things which are precious are saved only by sacrifice.

There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.

It had as many immoralities as the machine of today has virtues. After a year or two I found that it was degrading my character, so I thought I would give it to Howells.

Ladies, your happiness is very important to us. You have to understand that. Because when you're happy, you let us touch you.

WE ARE ALL TRAPPED in our own way of thinking, trapped in our own way of relating to people. We get so used to seeing the world our way that we come to think that the world is the way we see it.

Maybe deep down inside we were all still in our formative years. Maybe it was never too late for any of us to change.

I want to know what it is, this 'sin' they say I've committed.

I didn't have a stage mom at all. I was the one who planned out my auditions and drove myself an hour and a half into the city.

I don't watch cable news at night. So I can honestly tell you that I am not in a funk, I am not depressed, I'm not suicidal, I'm not thinking it's over.

Sherman made the terrible discovery that men make about their fathers sooner or later.