“Heartache is very fertile ground for song-making but so is happiness, so is absolute bliss.”

“I believe in monogamy if that's what a couple decides upon together, but it all depends on the personal history and culture of the two involved.”

“I feel like at 50 I've decided to become a rock star, which is, you know, typical of me. I always seem to work backwards.”

“I just really allowed my muse to be my guide and I just go with whatever I'm feeling.”

“I just try to live a really simple, natural life, because obviously, life has an impact on your voice.”

“I mean, I am fully aware of my influence and my responsibility to society in general representing the gay community. But in the same time, I don't represent the entire gay community because it's a vast, vast community, as one can imagine.”

“I never get tired of exploring Americana or country music, and I always have a little bit of a crooner in me that never seems to go away.”

“I often say fame is kind of like a drug or like sugar: when it's controlling you it doesn't feel good at all.”

“I sort of believe that my voice was preordained; I'm a Buddhist who believes in reincarnation so I think that my voice is a few lifetimes old.”

“I think I don't sing as hard as I used to sing. I used to kind of hit the accelerator a lot back in my youth, but now it's just being able to control it, and not work it so hard and use more of an emotional or sub textual kind of approach to singing.”

“I think I fall into a lot of cracks in terms of I'm too something. I'm too this, I'm too that. And my music has never really had a home. I've been this floating alternative. I'm too mainstream for alternative. I'm too alternative for mainstream. And I'm just kind of wandering.”

“I think I have a better sense of my weaknesses - being self-important, selfish and having a big ego probably triggers all the other stuff. I can see myself more clearly.”

“I think I have allowed my voice to experiment with the different genres. And I think that I have just really enjoyed the journey of getting to know my voice and seeing what it's capable of, what it's not capable of.”

“I think masculinity is bravado against the mystery of the universe of women. It's just a fear of not knowing what women have that's so powerful. It's this shield they put up to try to get closer.”

“If you knew how meat was made, you'd probably lose your lunch.”

“I'm nearly 50. I'm past being photographed falling out of bars.”

“It was kind of easier for me to do records that didn't take a year or two years of my life to write and to make.”

“It's just a theory really, but I have always thought that your physical surroundings can shape your voice and personality.”

“Life is so impermanent that it's not about somebody else or things around me, it's about knowing you are completely alone in this world and being content inside.”

“Look. Art knows no prejudice, art knows no boundaries, art doesn't really have judgement in it's purest form. So just go, just go.”

“My voice and the styles and genres I sing all express my appreciation for what I hear.”

“Spend time reflecting on your emotional and physical existence and how that applies to the voice. You have to apply that wisdom and experience when you sing - it's what comes through.”

“The older I get, the more I embrace who I am.”

“The sky is an infinite movie to me. I never get tired of looking at what's happening up there.”

“When women make their image about youth and sexuality, and not about intellect, that's kind of a dead-end road. So I think it's a combination of self-entrapment and entrapment by society.”

“You have to respect your audience. Without them, you're essentially standing alone, singing to yourself.”