I always sang standards because the songs I wrote for myself weren't as easy to sing.

I've always thought of myself as being a warrior. When you actually have a battle, it's better than when you don't know who to fight.

You know when you take the paint off an old canvas and you discover that something's been painted underneath it? That's what I feel like - that part of the old is coming through the new.

I've gone through the village of my songwriting and my artistry, and I've gone through lots of different phases, including one where it has been very quiet and abandoned me for a few years.

Worrying too much about other people's ears and not my own, I lost my way.

You know, when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997 I realized I had spent too long arranging my attitude.

Sometimes my boyfriend would write the lyrics and I would write the melody, and other times I would start from scratch. Or sometimes I would take a local poem and put that to music...I always sang standards because the songs I wrote for myself weren't as easy to sing.