I've spent hours and hours doing research into Appalachian folk music. My grandfather was a fiddler. There is something very immediate, very simple and emotional, about that music.

We are unique, each human voice, not because we are completely self-generated, but because of who we choose to assemble the countless factors that made us.

I'm not exactly an angry young person.

Very few opera singers in history have been able to cross into popular music.

I have had a very difficult time with stage fright; it undermines your well-being and peace of mind, and it can also threaten your livelihood.

I was constantly being pushed toward a European ideal of what it means to be a classical or opera singer, let's say in the Renata Tebaldi mode. I reject that.

My parents discussed singing every night over the dinner table; I had a tremendous music education.