I've never felt grounded because of my ancestry or my gender. I think until women get away from that they're not going to be great writers.

I learned a lot from Arthur Rimbaud. People talk about how he wanted to be a seer and do that through the derangement of the senses. What they forget was that he also advocated, sternly and austerely, that one must be able to go through all that - and then articulate it.

I've lost many, many friends through natural causes, through alcohol, through drugs, through AIDS. And every time I lose a friend or a loved one, it reminds me how great life is.

The thing I've always liked about performing is that I decide what I want to wear, whether I want to comb my hair.

Desire is hunger is the fire I breathe, love is a banquet on which we feed.

My sunglasses are like my guitar.

I was always a tomboy as a kid. I always had boyfriends. I was just a regular girl growing up in the late '50s and early '60s, but I was never really attracted to what the girls were attracted to: makeup, my appearance, homemaking.