I like the idea of growing old gracefully and full of wrinkles... like Audrey Hepburn.

It's much easier to write when you're sad. But you can end up isolated and depressed because you almost need to put yourself in that situation to have that angst to write from.

Ignore reality, there's nothing you can do about it.

Happy songs are very difficult to write. How many truly great upbeat songs are there?

I can understand why some people might look at me and say, 'What's she got to be depressed about?' I get that a lot in Britain, where mental health issues seem to be a big taboo.

I'm such a chameleon. I never get bored.

Saving animals is as simple as choosing synthetic alternatives instead of real fur.

If I start feeling down I'll gorge myself on pasta. That usually does the trick. It's the Italian blood in me.

Enjoy every moment: you never know when things might change.

It was only cool to have blond hair and be a surfer chick [in Sydney]. I could learn how to surf, but I still looked Italian. It took me a long time to realize that was a good thing.

Isolation is a big part of songwriting.

Besides, if there were no dragons of flesh and blood and fire, whence would come the idea for these stone carvings?

I could be whatever I wanted to be if I trusted that music that song that vibration of God that was inside of me.

O mighty-mouthed inventor of harmonies, O skilled to sing of Time or Eternity, God-gifted organ-voice of England, Milton, a name to resound for ages.

Orion nodded, then asked, “Dwarf cheese?” “Cheese made by dwarfs.” “Oh,” said Orion, relieved. “They make it. It’s not actually . . .” “No. What a horrible thought.” “Exactly.

I think the world would be much poorer without religion, speaking generally.

You have to try the impossible to achieve the possible

He who thinks little errs much.

Elvis was just like a big old kid. It was like he never got past 19, I don't think, in a lotta ways.

I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.