I think the first time I really heard poetry was in the schoolyard. Just the little limericks that kids say when they're jumping rope and playing games. I think that's the first time I heard rhyming words - I don't know if I'd call that the definitive poetry, but that's when I heard rhyming words said and not necessarily sung.

All you ever really want is a great character and great writing. As an actor, that's the juiciest sandwich you could ever ask for.

I'm a secret interior decorator. There's a mural on my dining room wall of the railroad tracks at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. I love having my hometown with me out here in California.

One day, I just got up to read a poem and started singing. I looked around - the reaction was great. And I said, oh, boy. I like this.

A woman is more than the sum of her parts.

That's what I enjoy most about my music, that it heals in its own time and makes us look at ourselves in its own time.

Ain't nothing coming easily in this life. Sometimes you gotta work, you gotta grow and it gotta hurt.