I feel some kind of duty to be really, really honest as a writer. The same is true of my songwriting.

What happens when your dream comes true - when the spotlight is on and then it moves away?

When I first started making music, I didn't really know what I was doing. I just wanted to write songs. I didn't have a concept. I didn't think it through. I was just flailing around doing what comes naturally. It took me a really long time to step back and deal with what I was doing with any kind of perspective or self-awareness.

At heart I am a librarian, a bird-watcher, a transcendentalist, a gardener, a spinster, a monk.

I never really expected to win the hearts of the masses.

I finished 'Beautiful Creature,' and I felt somewhat unfulfilled. I felt like this other side of me needed to be released. Some of the songs I left off the album weren't intense enough to be what I wanted. They weren't hard enough.

As long as there are religions, there are going to be people who are hiding their rottenness behind the veil of religion.