I think they were scared of me because I was different. I’ve always asked, ‘Why? Why do I have to do that? Why do I have to look this way? Why do I have to dress this way? Why do I have to behave this way?’
To be brave is to love someone unconditionally, without expecting anything in return. To just give. That takes courage, because we don't want to fall on our faces or leave ourselves open to hurt.
I stand for freedom of expression, doing what you believe in, and going after your dreams.
Express yourself, don’t repress yourself.
The essence of femininity is to absolutely love being a woman.
Suffering is a big informer, a big catalyst for creation. You take your sadness, your despair, your sense of injustice, and you put it in your work.
I like that you have four minutes to zero in on something and evoke a specific feeling and take people on some sort of journey.
My daughter’s birth was like a rebirth for me.
You don’t want to be the smartest person in the room; you want to be the dumbest in the room. You want to be surrounded by other thinking people who are going to say something that makes you think, “Oh, my God, that’s an amazing idea. Why didn’t I think of that.”
I actually always try to have a moment in my show where I can just lay down on stage and talk to people for a little while.
I think the silence would be good with me, and not interacting with people would be okay. But not being able to move outside of the space would be hard. Not being able to walk around – the stillness of my body, physically – that would be the challenge.
I think love resides in all of the songs, even when they are overtly sexual.
I love the art form, but working in film can be a disheartening experience.
I’ve been practicing yoga very seriously for a little over a year and I believe that helped my voice and affected my singing.
I’m sure other people have a very strange view of my lifestyle.
When you make a movie, it’s just a huge bureaucracy because movies cost so much money. Millions of people get involved, and pretty soon the creative idea gets tramped on and watered down or filtered through a huge system.
Nowadays New-York is not the exciting place it used to be. It still has great energy; I still put my finger in the socket. But it doesn’t feel alive, cracking with that synergy between the art world and music world and fashion world that was happening in the 80s. A lot of people died.
Who is my role model and how long can I keep this going? I just move around and do different things and come back to music, try making films and come back to music, write children’s books and come back to music.
Marriage? I don’t know what I really think about marriage. I’m a bit confused on that issue.
People love pitting strong females against each other.
Nothing stops an organization faster than people who believe that the way you worked yesterday is the best way to work tomorrow.