I learned jazz; that comes from blues. I learned rock; that comes from blues. I learned pop; that comes from blues. Even dance, that comes from blues, with the answer-and-response.

Everything does go in a circle.

I wouldn't record any song that I didn't like.

Dick Clark was a really great influence in my career; he helped me a lot with his whole organization, and they were awesome to me at all different points - but one thing that I really disagreed with him on was when he said that what I do, pop music, is a disposable art form.

I don't have good business sense. You never get much money for the arts. But I like independence. I like to grow.

Music, in its higher state, for me, is worth living and dying for. It's worth traipsing around the globe, it's worth the accolades and the other side of the accolades...I always have sung to the angels and the higher parts of people's souls.

It is not a dirty word, "feminism." I just think that women belong in the human population with the same rights as everybody else... The problem is, "A feminist looks like this, or is like that." We are taught not to like ourselves as women, we are taught what we're supposed to look like, what our measurements are supposed to be. I never hear what measurements men are supposed to be. Just women.