There's something about singing that I just love. It makes me feel freer than anything in the world.

Singing in Yiddish was a great thrill for me and came about through Joe Papp, the founder of The Public Theater.

I grew up in Synagogue in the boys' choir. We didn't listen to music in the house; only at temple. Then I went to a mostly African American high school on the South Side of Chicago and joined a gospel choir.

I'm a spiritual person, I'm an America, I'm a Jew, and all of those things influence every breath I take, everywhere I go.

There two other areas that are personally deeply important to me, that I hope the Homeland show can attend to in some way - one, being the refugee crisis. These are the most vulnerable people among us in the world. There are over 60 million refugees displaced by war, over 21 million that go to a third country. The numbers are climbing, and there are no legal options for these people. These are the victims of the real world's crises that the Homeland world reflects on, and almost takes a Polaroid of these days, versus a fictional tale of it.

My mom was a great cook and great baker all her life.

When I'm on the road with concerts, people ask me to autograph my CDs, but more and more they come up with the cookbooks.