Really important issues are getting lost, so I can say I'm glad to be a citizen of the planet and do my part.

The fifth member of my band is my non-profit work.

I finally learned to accept that I can't make radio play blues any more than I could get Reagan out of the White House.

I don't know that I'm unique in that people relate to my music, but I would hope people would say that I'm honest and that I do the best work I can possibly do instead of coasting.

We can choose, you know, we ain't no amoeba.

In 1967 I entered Harvard as a freshman, confident - in the way that only 17-year-olds are - that I could change the world. My major was African Studies, and my plan was to travel to Tanzania, where President Julius Nyerere was creating a government based on democracy and socialism.

Since I was 20 years old, I've been a kind of corporation. I'd wake up in the morning and my job was to be 'Bonnie Raitt' in capital letters.