I grew up around poets and novelists and my dad wrote poems about everything - from a cat sleeping in a window to a car wreck he passed on the highway. I learned not to censor myself: that was one of things I learned in my apprenticeship, my creative-writing apprenticeship with my dad.

The old jazz singers or old blues singers, you always just saw them kind of sitting down and singing. They weren't worried as much about their voice sounding perfect. They would make the song kind of fit their voice.

It's just the more you do it the better you get, or at least that's how I feel in my case. I think it's a combination of confidence and just having done it this long and just learning. I'm always learning. I'm still honing my craft.

I'm not just a doormat. I'm not just being stepped on all over the place. If you look at the bulk of my material, it's about trying to find some strength through that.

Offer your art up to the whole world, not just an elite few.

You should put time into learning your craft. It seems like people want success so quickly, way before they're ready.

I grew up in a very literate, very independent household where people spoke their ideas and were very supportive of helping each other find their own way