The more successful the work, the more people will step in to try to influence and manipulate the work for their own benefit.

The noise around us determines how we speak. And how we listen. Just as a conversation suffers in a war zone, art suffers in a culture built on noise. So does our enjoyment of it.

I was the last of the four Dresden dolls. Only me... and I didn't want to be here.

Obama can't change his cool disposition, though it would be nice if he lost the vaguely grudging air he gives off that problems of management get in the way of ideas.

Becoming artistic directors is an enormous responsibility and not one that we take lightly.

Your frame of reference is what you see.

Actors have bodyguards and entourages not because anybody wants to hurt them - who would want to hurt an actor? - but because they want to get recognized. God forbid someone doesn't recognize them.

Who cares and who doesn't care about a project, is going to shape the project in a significant way.

I usually like to make really dramatic songs that are dynamic from part to part - a lot of jumping from really quiet to really loud.

BASIC is to computer programming as QWERTY is to typing.

There is a powerful driving force inside every human being that once unleashed can make any vision, dream, or desire a reality.

When I taught, all my best students were women.