And where does magic come from? I think that magic's in the learning.

In the laughing times we know that we are lucky, and in the quiet times we know that we are blessed. And we will not be alone.

I have a sordid past.

The very best thing you can do is to try to write a song that has some sort of impact.

I came from a family who believed in, in quotes, the Rights of Man: who believed that in order to justify the sort of luxurious life that the majority of us have, related to the whole world, that you had to do something.

I come from a very la-ti-da East Coast intellectual family - or so they think.

When I had my first child, I went back to Ireland to live with my mother. So, a typical day there was me being a mother, with my mum showing me how to do things.

I have visited classrooms near military bases to learn more about what schools were doing to support their military kids. I met with teachers overseas to learn about the particular needs they face thousands of miles from America. And I listened to my own granddaughter, who dealt with her father's yearlong deployment to Iraq.