Pain comes like the weather, but joy is a choice.

In life's rich beauty pageant we put children on a stage, said flash your soft white belly child, but just don't act your age.

He speaks four letter language because his mind is small. His voice is like venom, I don't like him at all.

Time to go inward would you believe that I'm afraid to stare down the barrel of choices I have made.

God gave me wisdom, but the devil's got style.

On her new LP, Shatter, Jude Johnstone examines heartbreak and loss with such tender resignation that I wept in acknowledgement of its artful simplicity. A lesson in melodic grace delivered by as fine a singer-songwriter as any I know.

It evoked Picasso and Miles Davis for me — two great artists who totally indulged themselves in their work and who they were, but they certainly didn't give a damn what other people thought.