I was very pushed to look a certain way and act a certain way, and it wasn't me, but I played by their rules to get my foot in the door.

I'm an ocean, because I'm really deep. If you search deep enough you can find rare exotic treasures.

So, where's the Cannes Film Festival being held this year?

The female body is something that's so beautiful. I wish women would be proud of their bodies and not diss other women for being proud of theirs.

You can never be too perfect, too thin, too curvy. I'm very confident and happy with my body.

I am Ecuadorian but people felt so safe passing me off as a skinny, blue-eyed white girl.

I don't think there is such a thing as being too raunchy when it comes to the art form of burlesque.

There was no way in hell I was going to jeopardize my baby for my show.

Blues and soul and jazz music has so much pain, so much beauty of raw emotion and passion.

I love theatrics and have a huge imagination: Why would I want to sit onstage and sing a bunch of ballads back-to-back?

I remember watching the Grammys and looking at the performances and crying to my mom, saying how much I wanted to be there.

A storyteller makes up things to help other people

To an atheist all writings tend to atheism: he corrupts the most innocent matter with his own venom.

Man has two great spiritual needs. One is for forgiveness. The other is for goodness.

Mexico is going to need the United States to cooperate in order to rid itself of the violence and corruption that results from the drug trade.

The public wants to know why or why not. They don't want to know how you're going to do it.

I mean 'One Tree Hill' had some rabid fans - you'd be surprised - they're almost in a class of their own.

All of my wildness is in the writing. I have discovered I have to be orderly and boring in my personal life to be wild in my work.

To work with God's happiness bubbling in the soul is to carry a portable paradise within you wherever you go.

I love working with young people, which is to me a big kick.

I'd like to be remembered for music that moves people, that takes them some place else, that means something to them, reminds them of a good time or place, some memory, some positive moment.