For most of human history, musicians, artists, they've been part of the community — connectors and openers, not untouchable stars.

When you cannot joke about the darkness of life, that’s when the darkness takes over.

Art is food for the soul, and an artistic climate is a healthy climate because it breeds empathy.

I was just a very dark kid. My family was complicated.

I had very literal parents and I wanted to survive with metaphor and art, and there was a real sense of shame around it.

I wanted to feel like I could extend someone else's joy and not crush it, and that is the giant paradox nowadays of being a powerful woman: you want to live in a space of compassion and helpfulness and joy and expression, and the world is standing there, pointing the finger at you and telling you that you're greedy and domineering and attention-grabbing, and all you can do is shrug and just say, "Hopefully, someone out there understands and isn't misinterpreting."

One of the best things about Kickstarter and crowdfunding and the collapse of the music business is a lot of artists like me have been forced to face our own weird mess about ourselves and what we thought it meant to become musicians.