I didn't die young. So I am very lucky. There are other artists and people that didn't survive certain things... people can imagine that I did the most dangerous, and I did the worst... for many reasons, I shouldn't be here.

We need to be open minded to understand that there are lots of different levels of things going on and we shouldn't be so quick to judge - and certainly not to judge a whole race, a whole religion or a whole people - and a lot of that is going on.

I went through what I imagine thousands of other women have felt. I told myself to stay calm, to be strong, and that I had no reason to think I wouldn't live to see my children grow up and to meet my grandchildren.

My kids will be needing me a lot when they hit their teens. If I know anything about being a teenager. I need to be braced to be spending a lot of time with all six of them and making sure I can be there for when they go through everything.

I've started to really become aware of the world we live in, what's really going on.

I see myself as mom first. I'm so lucky to have that role in life. The world can like me, hate me or fall apart around me and at least I wake up with my kids and I'm happy.

I just started reading lots of books and then called the United Nations and asked if they could educate me. The more I got involved, the more I suddenly began to feel useful as a human being and felt like I was finally living as I should be.