Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I wasn't Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson. I wasn't Tori Amos or Norah Jones. Nobody knew what to do with me.
One of the great things I learned from how cooperative theater is, you can't be too precious about your ideas.
The women in my family are all super-emotional. The catchphrase in our family is 'Listen to my words, not my tears.'
True bravery is being exactly who you are, imperfections included. Vulnerability is the most precious gift you can give.
Jump start my kaleidoscope heart, Love to watch the colors fade, They may not make sense, But they sure as hell made me.
I never played coffee shops; I just played a lot of coffee shop-sized venues. I took every venue I could get my hands on.
I think I have some anger-management issues, and they end up coming out in these passive-aggressive songs that sound happy.
The most powerful place you can come from is just having a really deep knowing of who you are and what you want for yourself.
The theater community at large, I have to say, has just been so warm and so welcoming, and that's not something I'm as used to.
Never say never - I certainly have those dreams, and I hope that it happens at some point,I hope I get to see those stage lights.
All my life I've tried to make everybody happy while I just hurt and hide, waiting for someone to tell me it's my turn to decide.
I've been told to wear different things, to look different, to lose weight, to look sexier, to wear more hair, to wear more makeup.
The struggle is to stay present enough when you're taking your next step forward that you're really making your most honest choices.
I'm a social person, and I'm used to working as a band member. I like that. I like being a part of a family onstage and on the road.
There's really no "bad" people; there's just humans who are doing the best they can to figure life out. It's hard! We can all relate to that.
I would like to look back on my body of work and be proud of each record in its own right, but as a whole, I want to continue to grow and move forward.
Aesthetically, London is just beautiful; it's a gorgeous city. The architecture, monuments, the parks, the small streets - it's an incredible place to be.
I think it's one of those things about live performance - anything goes, anything can happen, and you have to just be ready and able to roll with the punches.
I certainly have dreams of being on a Broadway stage someday, if they'll have me. I think I want to stay really open to whatever possibilities present themselves.
If I get frustrated, the first thing I'll do is get up from the piano - completely mindlessly - and walk over to the cupboard and pull out something salty to eat.
I feel like my songs are like diary entries for me. So I usually write about things that have happened to me specifically or sometimes it can be someone who's close to me.
I'm never gonna be somebody who's gonna fall down from the sky on a trapeze. That's not me. I really want to make sure that my focus stays on connecting with the audience.
Nobody ever thinks a song is about them. Well, not when it's mean. When it's a good song everybody thinks it's about them. And when it's mean, nobody thinks it's about them.
I don't like karaoke very much. I like being around it, but I don't like singing it. If I had to sing a karaoke song, it's usually "Son of a Preacher Man" by Dusty Springfield.
Everything I do will always be compared to 'Love Song' in terms of success or the way it's written or whatever, but it was a really formative moment in my life and in my career.
I'm that person who owns all of the seasons on DVDs, including the Lifetime intimate portraits showcasing The Golden Girls. I am a massive fan. I think I'm Dorothy. She's my favorite.
My proudest moment of my career was opening night in Cambridge and watching the cast take their curtain call. No one was looking at me, and I was floating off the ground. It was just euphoric.
When I look back, I was so mean to myself, and I was so uncomfortable in my own skin. I still feel that very loudly sometimes, but to try and really nurture that sense that you are your own friend.
I think we're at a really rich and fertile time in the zeitgeist about paying attention to diversity of all kinds - racial diversity, gender diversity, making room for a continuum that is more inclusive.
I have been very fortunate to be a part of tours with other artists that have exposed me to new places that I've never been before. Once you discover something beautiful, you just want to keep coming back.
Just speak your truth, it's an important cornerstone of how your life ends up sort of unfolding in front of you. Even if it's painful, if it's honest, it's going to bring you to the place you deserve to be.
I'm such a fan of the Obamas in general, and I love how dignified and charismatic and how intelligent they are. They are so warm and kind and encouraging, especially of young people, and I really love seeing that.
I think that's my hope for a lot of the feminist movement is that the gender thing sort of stops being the selling point, if that makes any sense. We're just people making art, and that's how this process has felt to me.
There are so many wonderful classic roles, but I also would be really interested in developing something brand new. I think my heart would probably be in developing something brand new; I think that sounds really exciting.
My dance move has seemingly turned into push-ups. Sometimes, especially if I've indulged a little bit in an evening, it's not out of the ordinary to find me, for some reason, doing push-ups. That seems to be my go-to dance move.
I have found so much joy and so much pride in contributing and being a team member, and then stepping back and watching someone else get the applause. That has been really satisfying in a way that I wouldn't have probably imagined.
I work a lot with men, and I work with wonderful men that I absolutely adore, but it's something that I'm now paying attention to - to seek out and make room for the talented women in all the technical fields and creative fields across the board.
My life is so different because of 'Waitress.' The people that I'm close to, the things I do professionally, my colleagues, my best friend and my boyfriend - like, all of these things have come to me because of the show. And it's really beautiful.
My hairstylist taught me a trick for my hair. You section off your hair and put them up in these crazy little knots and then it looks like you curled your hair. It's saved me so much time 'cause on the road you don't have time or plugs to plug your curling iron in.
I'd like to think I could physically manage doing that, but I don't think it feels authentic to the kind of performer that I am. I think that, for me, being stationary and just sort of singing the songs seems to be the most connected and authentic expression for me on stage.
With musical theatre, although there are rules, they're so different to the ones I feel like I have accidentally been ingrained with writing pop music. The main point is to tell the story. You just have to make sure the character's voice is strong and the storytelling is strong.
Stepping back into theatre, a childhood dream, I always felt like I would be onstage. I hadn't imagined myself in a composer role... I find it so satisfying to be behind the scenes and writing the music and watching it elevated and characterized by different voices than my own. It's so exciting.
I do a lot of reading on Buddhist philosophy, and a Buddhist nun named Pema Chödrön talks a lot about acceptance. It's one of the main tenets of Buddhism - accepting that what is, is. The root of our suffering is when we just don't want to accept a truth. We want something to be different than it is.
I have been influenced by many different artists at many different stages of my life. Starting out, it was people like Elton John, Billy Joel, Ben Folds, and Fiona Apple. As I got older I got deeper into the work of bands like the Beatles, artists like Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, Etta James, and Joni Mitchell.
I'm somebody who grew up listening to a lot of musical theater, so getting to finally write musical theater songs and songs that sound that way - the emphasis being on the storytelling, but the arrangements and the orchestrations can be really varied - I found that to be, actually, a really joyful discovery.
I think I'm someone who is really prone to melancholy, and the super heavy, thick shows kind of spiral me out into not being able to be as happy a person as I think I deserve to be, so I tend to watch things like 30 Rock and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Anything Tina Fey's involved in. And Parks and Rec. I love comedies!
At the end of the day, the only thing I ever wanted to feel was loved. So I think if I could give someone a piece of advice, it's really learn how to be kind to yourself. In all of our ugliness and all of our brokenness and our bad choices, to really learn to nurture that part of yourself that can be your own big sister in a way.
I've dabbled in running around on stage, and at certain times it's nice to step away from the anchor of the piano and use a handheld microphone and connect with the audience, but I think my soul as a performer is just a little bit more connected to the instrument. To just sort of sit and sing - that feels like the most natural fit for me.
The earliest issue I can remember going through was body image issues. I was a chubby little kid and I got made fun of for it. I dealt with horrible, horrible self esteem issues, and I still struggle with that. I think it's what taught me a lot of empathy and compassion, though, but there are those days where I look in the mirror and I still see twelve year old fat Sara.
I know that I'm very susceptible to getting caught up in storylines like, "I want him to be different. I want him to be more open. I want him to call." We have all of these storylines that kind of take over sometimes, and I think there's real grace and a peaceful heart at the center of just accepting what is, and knowing that everything's OK. The good, the bad, the ugly, the pain, the hurt, the frustration - all of that is valuable and part of this human experience, so we should lean in to all of it.