I like to write about things that are extreme in some form. I like to write about something I feel I have to write about.

If you have to fight a crowd of boys, it's best to go for the biggest one. That way you won't have to fight them all. The others will see that you mean business and you will win their respect.

If language were liquid, it would be rushing in. Instead here we are in a silence more eloquent than any word could ever be.

I wasn't afraid of going places or doing new things. I would do just about anything or go anywhere. I'd get a notion in my mind and just follow it.

I still feel conflicted because I don't always get to spend as much time with my daughter as I'd like, given my work.

That said, I've never thought the fact that I'm a woman was important to my work.

But I never want to get to the point where I write a safe song or one that represents my sense of a subject in order to appear civilized.