Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I wasn't really raised in a religious family.
No matter where I go, I never write the setlist until I'm at the venue.
I wrote my first song when I was four, and I played it at my piano recital.
I learned about forgiveness, and I've reached out to others to make amends.
I was never really into any kind of hard-core religious structure or dogma.
'St. Teresa' is one of my favorites. It reminds me of the importance of grace.
Leonard Cohen is probably the greatest lyricist for music that's ever lived, you know?
When you love the music that you're going to play, of course you're going to do your best.
I've been in therapy since I was five, but music goes way, way, way, way, way beyond therapy.
I like swimming or go to the gym, but I am alone a lot, and that can get a little depressing.
I ran away at 15 to chase a guy that I met who would become my boyfriend, and he was living in L.A.
Meditation is really good. I do that a lot with my bass player Bob, and we do TM: transcendental meditation.
I'm writing all the time when I'm at home. When I'm on the road, I just get ideas, and I put it on my iPhone.
If I'm happy and joyous, which I have been a lot in my life, thankfully, I'm usually not at the piano writing about it.
I love being an American, and it's a beautiful country, but we are a bunch of whack jobs. We have got so much to learn.
That's the great thing about social media: you can make one move, and everybody knows about it, and I kind of like that.
The piano represents home to me. It represents a place where I can heal - the sound of it, the feel of it, the way it looks.
I don't think that Americans are ungrateful, not at all. But I do think that we are a young country, and we have a lot to learn.
If I'm in a good place, then I'm really open-minded to what's being presented, but if I'm in a bad place, I'm much more closed-minded.
The transition from fan to performer to recording artist, for me, was like learning how to dive... and each board got higher and higher.
Each night, we try something new, play different songs, see what works, what goes down well, mix it up a bit until we find the right mix.
Fame doesn't matter; people approving of you doesn't matter. And if it does matter, you're in store for something very difficult and painful.
One of the beautiful things about music is it gives you an opportunity to learn how to tell the truth, and it's a life-long learning process.
I'm not a doctor, but I would assume that anything that you're doing that's harming you, and you can't stop doing it, is a sign of mental illness.
'I'd Rather Go Blind' was a song I did on an album with Joe Bonamassa called 'Don't Explain,' and I've always been such a huge, huge Etta James fan.
If I ever had to choose between having a good mind and good health with having big success, then there's no contest: I'd put my health first every time.
I cook stuff that I picked up from my husband's mother. I thought that would be a good way to his heart, you know. I love to cook Italian and French, also.
On piano, I tend to write either gospel or singer-songwriter songs, sometimes kind of rocking blues songs. But the more heavier rock stuff I will write on bass.
Although I take the medication, which has made a huge impact on my life in a positive way, still, honestly, when I'm a bit sick is when I'm at my most creative.
Once I finish something, if I don't feel that it's absolutely fabulous, there's no way I would ever let it be recorded, I wouldn't even present it to a producer.
Sometimes when people ask a lot of me, or they're not liking what I'm turning in, especially when I'm working one on one with someone, I can get really insecure.
The thing is, I'm not really a great pianist at all. But if God said I could either sing or play piano, and which would it be? I would definitely choose the piano.
When I'm going through something really difficult, I think it's what made me go to the piano for the first time when I was a child. I look at it as a place to pray.
I had so much anger and judgement towards myself for my work not being up to the standard that I expected it to be, so I wouldn't allow myself to complete anything.
I was very neurotic as a kid, but I also used to pray to God as a young kid in school. It was a form of meditation to slow my head down and not make me feel nervous.
To me, I don't care if I co-write or if I write alone. If it's a great song and it makes it to the record, then that's what is supposed to come, you know what I mean.
I'd been trying to do this since I was 15, sending out the demo tapes and doing all the things that everyone told me that I should be doing. But no deal - like, never.
I should be writing songs about happiness all day long, but a lot of my songs get inspired from that place of unworthiness and shame, which really goes with mental illness.
If I'm writing the music, and I don't feel like its really connecting inside, then I'll know there's no reason to really put a lyric on it; it's a waste, and I'll throw it.
If you're going to go the way of 'American Idol,' then you better be able to do what you want musically, because just going for the fame will only keep you happy for so long.
We all have our ups and our downs, and it's consistent throughout all of our lives. It's not a movie: you don't get to a point where, suddenly, you're free forever - it's life.
I never want to hear about going to hell if I did something wrong. But I do use Jesus as my curve point, and I think of his teachings when it comes to how I want to treat people.
My personality is a personality where I get really, really nervous and doubtful about almost everything, which is always a work in progress to build up my confidence a little bit more.
So it's a majorly important thing for young artists, as well as older artists like myself, to know that not only do we have the right to say no, but if we don't say no, we're gonna die.
I always kind of say to people, don't believe the hype. You are never as good as what they say; you are never as bad, and remember that you do it just to make you happy and to enjoy it.
For any performer who's coming up, if they really want to test their psychology and how they handle themselves on stage, then coming to the U.K. as a whole is a wonderful place for that.
Before I was on medication, the mania was so bad that I couldn't concentrate, so although I'd feel very creative, I could never really finish a piece of work because my mind was moving so fast.
The audiences are really great. I really love it over there. I love Europe, period. Oh my God, all the architecture and all the history and just to the way people think and live is so different.
,what saved my life was my husband. He nursed me back to health, and he continues to do that to this day. It's not easy to be married and to have a relationship with someone with mental illness.
I'm such an emotional performer, and my head is always like a rollercoaster, so if I'm in a good place and feeling grateful, that's when I notice that my shows come across as a lot more positive.