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

I just want to be as good a person as I can be.

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.

Part of the reason I had such a drive to be an activist, and support other activists, is because I was raised Quaker and my parents kept us very much informed and involved as kids in civil rights and the conservation movement.

I learned a lot about what it was like to have to use different hotels and not use the bathrooms, which made me more determined to be an activist.

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'm proud of the way I rearrange and put things together, like a chef who makes a great meal, or a filmmaker who puts together a story - it's casting, editing, cinematography.