I was reared on folk music.

I think everybody identified at a pretty young age that I was fairly entranced with myself. And that I had to be tempered.

I would love to have a number one hit. The truth is if I don't get one, I'll be fine, but at the same time, the truth is that I'm dying for one, as well.

I was keenly aware that I didn't want to draw on too many typically doomed aspects of the fated singer. Whether it's Judy Garland or Norma Desmond, there is this tragic quality to older women that one can revel in, and you want it to be more three-dimensional than that. So it was important for the character to be strong and resilient, because there are so many victims in opera.

Places that have experienced great defeat experience a kind of rebirth, which I think America has to do - unless we want to get more decrepit. I don't think we have to destroy the place totally.

I have a three-year-old daughter, which makes me more environmentally conscious. For me, it's about the future.

I very much faced my mother's death with hard, arduous and time-consuming labor. The more I would do, the less I would feel.