I realized I was a girl playing with all of these great musicians, but race and gender never did cross my mind, really, until other people started talking about them. They weren't really an issue for me.

The future has never been something that I've been able to plan. Every time I try - I don't care if it's three or four days ahead or a week ahead - it just doesn't pan out.

I played the flute in elementary school, but when I got into high school, they didn't have any flutes; they gave me a clarinet and said, 'Play it in the same way, just hold in a different position.' I really didn't care much for it.

I never thought for one second I'd be able to play with a real band. When I was in high school, I went through a lot of bad treatment and was called a lot of names by boys because I wanted to play. Sly was different.

After I was assaulted in Egypt, I learned fear. I've just never been so scared in my life. I've never been so close to death.

I first learned how to do hair from drag queens. I learned eyelashes are the key to life, because they make everyone look fabulous.

In a global world, nationalism is a fantasy, and it's poison. It used to be appropriate, but it's not anymore, and we haven't learned that lesson yet.

In the first period religious life appears as a form of discipline which the individual or a whole people must accept as an unconditional command without any rational understanding of the ultimate meaning and purpose of that command.