“Honesty is all you need.”

“How do I tell people who I am? Not being a writer, the only way is to sing songs that reflect my opinions.”

“I was just a bumpkin. Just a country bumpkin. I had just come to New York from Virginia. Or was it Baltimore?”

“If you really think you're right, you should tell it.”

“If you truly dig what you are doing, if you lay it out that way, nobody can not respond. That's what rock and roll is; it's relentless.”

“I've always been so apathetic. I figured, OK, maybe the world is going to fall down around me. Now I want to make a better world... that's motherhood.”

“I've been fat since I was seven, and being fat sets you apart.”

“My role in the Mamas and Papas was basically just to sing.”

“Probably the biggest bring-down in my life was being in a pop group and finding out just how much it was like everything it was supposed to be against.”

“There's so much talk about the drug generation and songs about drugs. That's stupid. They aren't songs about drugs; they're about life.”

“They're paying me an outrageous sum of money; USD40,000 a week, which is totally silly.”

“When you're famous, you don't get to meet people because they want you to like them when the present themselves to you, and you don't see the real people.”

“When you're on stage, you gotta do it. People pay to see you, and they deserve to be entertained, and you should go out there and really give it your best shot. And that's quite a challenge.”

“You have a new audience for every show. Even though you do the same thing all the time, you gotta keep it fresh for yourself, and you gotta keep it good and interesting and something you want to do. I'm anxious to have a really terrific act. Whatever it takes it takes.”