Back when I started, you could either be a folk singer, or you could be a disco diva, or you could be a secretary or maybe a disc jockey, but there was no room for anything alternative yet.

Back when we were first making records, you didn't just make the music, you put a great deal of energy into the way it looked, and every word that was written on the whole thing.

What's important to me is love, especially that. What's important to me is growing and evolving. But ultimately, what's important to me is being real and being authentic. I've spent enough time in my life holding poses, playing roles.

We had a mother who could have been called a feminist. That's just how we were raised. Why do you have to go sulk off in some corner because you are a girl? What's the big deal?

Ultimately, my greatest achievement is maintaining my career while sustaining a happy marriage and kids.

I very much feel that marriage is a sacrament and that sacrament should extend... to that legal entity of a union between what traditionally in our Western values has been defined as between a man and a woman.

I had never been to Hawaii, and now I say that my body is from L.A. but my heart is from Hawaii, because I'm in love with it and it's home on every level, from a spiritual, soulful place.

Although I will miss serving you in the Senate, I look forward to spending more time with family, especially my sweet wife Elaine, whose unwavering love and support made all of this possible.