You have to grow up, start paying the rent and have your heart broken before you understand country.

As anyone who goes into dog-rescue knows, it is not a for-profit business, but the rewards are priceless for me.

I'm not going out there and doing the same material every night. I have this amazing audience of fans who have been listening to me, some of them since 1975.

I'm so grateful that I'm able to do something about this passion that I have for shelter animals. In a strange way, it completes me. It means so much to me and makes me feel like I'm truly making a difference.

There's a certain grace in accepting what your life is and embracing all the good things that have been - but there's still an expectation of good things to come. Not necessarily what you expected.

Like falling stars from the universe we are hurled Down through the long loneliness of the world Until we behold the pain, become the pearl

I really believe that we have a responsibility, almost a sacred responsibility, to the animals that share this planet with us.