We needed time to figure out what all of this meant, how we were going to come to terms and redefine what our love was called. I learned from him that often contradiction is the clearest way to truth.

I hadn't performed or been in the public eye for about 16 years. When my husband passed away, I was obliged to go back to work to take care of our kids. I also wanted to do a record in memory of him. So we did Gone Again. During that process, I had to be photographed and had to go back to doing articles and interviews.

I had this idea that the coolest thing that could happen to you was talking with God.

I knew if I lived long enough I would be poet laureate of something.

More than anything that's been the thread through my life - the desire to write, the impulse to write. I mean, it's taken me other places, but it was the impulse to write that led me to singing.

I got my style from a lot of different people, even my style of reading, even Johnny Carson inspired me.

It got to the point where I started hiding because I didn't want to be photographed. (On living with Robert Mapplethorpe)