The great thing about the arts, and especially popular music, is that it really does cut across genres and races and classes.

Pat Benatar might need a rock band, but I can just sit with a blues guitar for an hour and a half and do folk songs and great contemporary ballads, and not many people can pull that off.

I made my first album, and I guess it wasn't a fluke, because now I'm on my 16th.

There's nothing like living a long time to create a depth and soulfulness in your music.

There's lots of flaws and frailties and cracks in the armor, and nobody wants to put themselves out there as some kind of Joan of Arc because none of us can live up to that, but I'm grateful to be a role model and be respected because I have a whole slew of people, men and women, that I feel the same way about.

Ugly ducklings don't turn into swans and glide off down the lake. Whether your sunglasses are on or off, you only see the world you make.

I have a really full life, both within music and outside it.