The funny thing is the songs that people think are about me probably aren't. And the songs that are probably are the ones they wouldn't think... so that's where it kind of is funny.

I remember listening to the radio as a kid and finding that the songs always made me feel more peaceful. Funny but the more hurtin' the music was the better it made me feel. I think of that now when I write my songs. I may not be feelin' the blues myself but I'm writing them for other people who have a hard life.

I wanted to be that quirky girl who writes funny songs that still have meaning.

Language is like songs like food like dance-it is the expression of what we think.

My friends gave me the first songs which was the first food in my soul for me.

I didn't want to be on the losing side. I was fed up with Jewish weakness timidity and fear. I didn't want any more Jewish sentimentality and Jewish suffering. I was sickened by our sad songs.

What Whitney Houston has accomplished will never be accomplished. She's the most famous person on the planet as far as vocaling and her songs. So I'm very happy that I can sit here and say I had a chance to know her. And I'm still dazed that she's gone. But she lives because her music is so powerful.

No matter how famous and established they were or however blessed they were with great songs or long careers if they lived alone they lived alone. That's not the way I wanted to live prior to the tour or after.

There's the famous thing that the A&R man from the record company is supposed to do: He's supposed to come into the studio and listen to the songs you've been recording and then say 'Guys I don't hear any singles.' And then everybody falls into a terrible depression because you have to write one.

I became famous I think really because of the interpretation of other people's songs way back when and that's what I enjoy the most. And I'm a lazy bugger.