Please believe that I do this because I am convinced that my illness cannot be helped for any length of time and I cannot bear to be a burden on anyone any longer.

I had no desire to become a singer until I heard Billie Holiday. The first time I heard her on a record, it was a revelation. She sounded like a woman singing about herself.

If you sing honestly and sincerely to kids, they will respond with all their hearts.

It may be that my most helpful contributions to music aren't my compact discs but my articles about other great singers of the past for American Heritage magazine.

Thank God for beautiful songs about feeling despair when you yourself are in despair. They really get us through.

I worry about kids and all they are exposed to. Kids get so bombarded with hard, commercial sounds. They don't even have a chance to develop the softer part of themselves without fear of being ridiculed.

I have complete artistic control, and I just do my best album every time and trust it to fate.