I'm not one who divides music, dance or art into various categories. Either something works, or it doesn't.

The last two - distractions and fears - are the dangerous ones. They're the habitual demons that invade the launch of any project. No one starts a creative endeavor without a certain amount of fear; the key is to learn how to keep free-floating fears from paralyzing you before you've begun. When I feel that sense of dread, I try to make it as specific as possible.

I had always seen myself as a star; I wanted to be a galaxy.

Optimism with some experience behind it is much more energizing than plain old experience with a certain degree of cynicism.

If art is the bridge between what you see in your mind and what the world sees, then skill is how you build that bridge.

There are so few people who can really take hold of art and sort of eat and chew it up. Somehow it's got to be held special, sacred in a corner, and if you don't do the same thing with it, if you're not equally reverential, serious, and pompous about it, well, then you're not a great artist. Who needs that?

I learned very early that an audience would relax and look at things differently if they felt they could laugh with you from time to time. There's an energy that comes through the release of tension that is laughter.