I'm kind of honored to be a dragon lady. The dragon is a very powerful, mythical animal.

I never thought, "I'm going to be an artist". When I actually began to become successful in the art world I made it a point to say, 'I am a dilettante, I am not a professional artist", which is true.

In the '60s we fought for peace, when the Vietnam war was on. We were against the cops and against the politicians, and there was a lot of waving banners and all that. And I think in a way, just as they were enjoying that machoism of war, we were enjoying the machismo of being anti-war, you know?

Words are power. And a book is full of words. Be careful what power you get from it. But know that you do.

People accuse artists of being narcissists - of course we are! If we don't like ourselves, who's going to like us?

The Beatles were a group made up of four very complex men, and my small hand could not have broken these men up.

I started to notice that simpleness is divine. I think we all start trying to use very complex harmonies and rhythms and all that because of a certain kind of ambition. But I was always trying to create something simple.