I've done a lot of partying in my time because I didn't want to go home and I didn't know what to do.

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.

You may know me... But you have no idea who I am...

There is one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.

I just see a lot of people who are really terrified of the "f-word." A lot of women these days, a lot of young women don't want to call themselves feminists.

I'm from New York and I love New York and I'm always repping New York, but what I represent is something deeper than just being a New York rapper.

The women I have loved I have desired for themselves, but also because I feared myself.

Coltrane would do what you'd get a Roland Pro Tools module to do but with a group of jazz musicians.

The romantic artist, off alone in his storm-battered castle, fuming whole worlds from his brain, reflects his culture's most persistent myth, of God creating from a primal loneliness.

In my life, I'd like to play more golf and, and get a decent handicap.

Life's just a cocktail party - on the street.

Over half of people who are working now and over 50 have nothing for retirement savings. They will only have Social Security to rely on.