I'm not very prolific. I'm not good at sitting down as an artist and saying 'Okay, I need to put in my four hours today.'

I have a tendency to run after people who are completely unattainable and uninterested and make a complete fool of myself.

I've spent the first part of my life in the shadow of my family. I'm not going to live in the shadow of my husband.

It's better to embrace your roots than it is to fight it, because then you're just fighting something that you're not going to win. We're like a band of gypsies, and it makes sense.

I don't like talking about music.

I always seem to write personal songs; that's always been my go-to thing, to write about what I'm experiencing.

I think my mother was always worried about me when she was alive.

I've learnt to hide my tears on stage. They make people uncomfortable.

You know, people always ask me how I describe my music. First of all I tell them that's their job and then that also one day I hope to have things referred to as Martha Wainwright -esque.

It can often happen that motherhood can really stop a lot of women in their tracks and I wanted to try and keep working through that as much as I could.

My childhood definitely revolved around my relationship with my brother. I wanted to be different. I wanted to find my way of being as intriguing and interesting as he was.

You can become great by multiplying yourself through time conversion into different products but that will only be possible if you understand the value of time.

The war had made some into libertines and some into serious, sober men.

Poverty has in its favour an exquisite sleep filled with beautiful dreams.

Darkness just loosens the mask. Sharpens the mind's eye. Makes the color of a remembered pencil, or a tick of waxy red on a cracked plaster wall, as vivid as that taillight a few feet away.

The onset of adulthood is an organic, creeping process. No one wakes up one day and decides, "Lo, on this day I shall forever put away childish things and begin clipping coupons to go to Wal-Mart.

Horses and jockeys mature earlier than people - which is why horses are admitted to racetracks at the age of two, and jockeys before they are old enough to shave.

Worry is the last infirmity of the weak-minded.

Play hardball with Musharraf, but don't cut off US aid.

Little things can make such a big difference during recording.

The big thing I've discovered, the big secret, is that it's all about how happy you are. It's the ultimate thing. People forget your flaws and imperfections if they see you're happy.