I have a certain image that's more classic, and I'm happy to stay out of the fray.

When a human being without amplification makes a sound that is high and loud, it is almost unworldly.

Certainly, jazz has become more of a niche, which is surprising, because it's our music. It's the national music of America.

We are unique, each human voice, not because we are completely self-generated, but because of who we choose to assemble the countless factors that made us.

We sing with the entire body. The sounds that we make emanate not just from the head, but from the whole heart and soul, and, most important, the gut.

I don't want to be somebody who stands still and sings pretty. Each song is a world. Each song is a story. I don't achieve nearly what I want.

Everybody's a work in progress. I'm a work in progress. I mean, I've never arrived. I'm still learning all the time.

There's no performance where I never have to think about setting up a phrase or making a technical adjustment while I'm performing.

Someone once said that there are probably seven naturally good singing days in a year-and those are days you won't be booked. What we must learn is how to sing through all the other days.

It is our responsibility to learn how to speak to an audience that is less informed about music, to give it a reason to want to come and see us instead of going to the movies.

I don't want to record anything unless it can be great and genuinely interesting.

I'd prefer to be alone by myself, than alone in a room full of people.

of seatbelts as an opportunity to take up drunk-driving.

Of course I love music and I love what I do, but seeing their response to my work is my favourite part of it.

Women critics are amazons in climax.

Every great thing requires a great sacrifice.

I want to be a living work of art.

Atheism thrives on bad religion.

The winding down of summer puts me in a heavy philosophical mood.

Rush to danger; wind up nowhere.

All drama is conflict. Without conflict, there is no action. Without action, there is no character. Without character, there is no story. And without story, there is no screenplay.