I was brought up in the Christian church and I studied in the teachings of Jesus. I believed in caring for others and trying to be kind. It's something I still have to work on every day.

I don't care how somebody gets their education, as long as they have one.

I do use reality because I want my work to feel real, I want it to feel heartfelt. I don't want to make it up and have it sound corny or unrelatable.

Ten minutes before you go onstage and you begin singing that torchy blues song, you may just be drinking a glass of water and brushing your teeth and doing some deep breathing.

Singers, musicians, and songwriters don't want to use the word "acting" because we want it to be more real than that - we want it to come from us: naturally, truly, really.

Things are changing. They need to change more. It should not be of any note that a woman does something, because women do everything.

Artists are able to do well in the political arena because of fame, if only they can educate themselves.

If you just take one foot in front of the other without any protection, you may end up falling off the fence.

The line is very delicate and fine between being what one might call sane or insane, well or unwell.

Feminism has nothing to do with partisanship.

Every straight man I know is a feminist. They wouldn't be my friends if they weren't.

When a man takes a mistress, he doesn't turn around and divorce his wife.

As if you could pick in love, as if it were not a lightning bolt that splits your bones and leaves you staked out in the middle of the courtyard.

Adversity helps a man to know his inherent great abilities.

If only I had the influence with my wife and children that I have in some other quarters!

To Death I yield, but not to Doubt, who slays before!

Miyazaki's films in Japan are bigger than Titanic. He's an incredible rock star there. In the US, they don't do as well.

As long as you are held within a pattern you must create disorder in the world.

The truth is you always grow to love the people you pray for. That’s because you develop God’s heart of love for them.

One day I will have to forgive life for ending, I tell myself. I will have to learn how to let life be life with its unbearable finality ... just be what it is.

To mingle friendship far is mingling bloods.