Growing up in the neighborhoods I did in Oakland, you don't know the Beatles, but I started learning their songs.

We should not fear what is new, but we should not throw out that which is in the past but is still valuable.

Live performance is everything. First of all, I have terrible stage fright. But beyond that, once the music starts, it's OK.

What did winning a Grammy do for me? It made me want to get rid of my Grammy, pack it away, and never see it again. It made me not want to speak to anyone who wanted to speak about my Grammy.

It's a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it.

When I started doing music, it was out of despair and boredom. I got passionate about it, and I felt that it allowed me to become somebody: an artist who explores her different identities.

I'm a planner, an organizer. I write things down because you can visually check them off and see progress. Writing things down is a lost art. I've got sticky notes all over my apartment.

Death? Why this fuss about death? Use your imagination, try to visualize a world without death! Death is the essential condition of life, not an evil.