My mother had no end of tragedy in her life. She would make herself get up and take a deep breath and go out and do laundry. Hang up sheets.

My mother loved rock and roll. She loved high-energy music.

I daydream a lot - that's how I get my ideas. If I'm sitting in a café, I'm not on my phone because I want to hear my mind. I think that those periods of small solitude that we are really losing are so important.

Remember, we are mortal, but poetry is not.

In the '50s you had to wear pink ribbons if you were a girl, and you were supposed to become a hairdresser or a secretary. I couldn't stomach it. Later on, when I fell in love with my husband and had children, that's when my mother's earthiness or sense of femaleness kicked in.

I always enjoyed doing transgender songs.

To be an artist — actually, to be a human being in these times — it’s all difficult. … What matters is to know what you want and pursue it.