The more hedonistic you were, the better...I very much subscribed to that as a young artist.

The mind has so many pictures Why can't I sleep with my eyes open? The mind has so many memories Can you remember what it looks like when I cry? I'm trying, trying to tell you All that I can in a sweet and velvet tongue But no words ever could sell you Sell you on me after all that I have done.

I was reared on folk music.

I find so many songwriters today are missing an element ... either the production is amazing but the songs aren't, or it's the other way around.

But I don't even think you hear me at all Under your medieval ceiling behind your biblical wall

My mother and father could not handle even me being gay. We never talked about it really.

The operas I listen to aren't in English, and I want to listen to my opera after I'm done with it. I want to have the desire to play it on the stereo. To me, the language is part of the mystery.