If people just want to be famous, that's just not enough to get you up at 4 in the morning to go to work. You have to love what you're doing.

I'm not cynical about love at all. I'm very practical. I think love takes up a lot of time.

I think every year I become happier because I become more comfident and more comfortable in my own skin.

I've been writing music since I was about eight. I would write sporadically. I wrote a lot of music in high school. I guess the oldest song on the record ("I Thought I Saw Your Face") is about eight years old. It's the old "I had my whole life to write my first album and six months to write the second one." I did, to some degree, but actually, a lot of the songs that ended up on the record, I wrote really recently. So it varies.

I love telling stories. I think of myself as a storyteller, and I don't feel bound by being just a singer or an actress. First, I'm a storyteller, and history is stories - the most compelling stories. There is a lot you can find out about yourself through knowing about history. I have always been attracted to things that are old. I have just always found such things interesting and compelling.

There are lots of things that everyone else likes that I hate. So I feel that audience rights are very important. I just want people to hear it and decide if they like it or don't like it as they would with anything else.

I mean, the idea that it might help somebody out or help somebody make the decision to become a stewardess or otherwise... No, that's one of the nice things about making music or making movies, is that art does have the power to affect people. I feel really privileged to be a part of that.