I love Barbra Streisand and Sade who've both had careers in soul and I want my music to have that timeless quality that isn't necessarily now.

I dress in a sophisticated and classy way - I always dress in a way I know my mother wouldn't be embarrassed to see.

Ice cream is my comfort food.

Good music shouldn't have a shelf life.

I did my dissertation on Kafka.

If I make a song where I'm happy, I sound completely mad - I think my voice is better-suited for sadder songs.

My grandfather was a Russian-Jewish immigrant who lived in Northern Ireland and apparently when he sang in the synagogue he made everyone cry.

I like how strong Sade is and how she doesn't give away too much.

I want to be as feminine and classic as possible.

Dance music has pushed its way into the mainstream. Which is good for me.

I would like to think I am feminist in some sorts.

Politics is not a picture on a wall or a television sitcom that you can decide you don't much care for.

When the silence and the aloneness press down and around me, crushing me, carving through me like ice, I need to speak aloud sometimes, if only for proof of life.

Those who never think of money need a great deal of it.

Fundamental problem in American democracy is that we are allowing congressmen and senators to be bought and sold like sneakers.

I mean the whole thing about meditation and yoga is about connecting to the higher part of yourself, and then seeing that every living thing is connected in some way.

Receive, dear friend, the truths I teach, So shalt thou live beyond the reach Of adverse Fortune's pow'r; Not always tempt the distant deep, Nor always timorously creep Along the treach'rous shore.

We are hoarding potentials so great they are just about unimaginable.

Compassion is the ability to understand how difficult it is for people to be the best of what they want to be at all times.

What can defeat greed, technological superiority, and legal lawlessness ... is discipline, consciousness, and unity.