"Time has nothing to do with the gifts that the gods give you; it's what you do."

"I'm used to getting up at 7, getting breakfast, getting the kids off to school, and doing the mommy thing and the wife thing and the daughter thing."

"I used to sing at funeral homes for families that didn't have a vocalist. I didn't get paid. I needed to sing."

"I would say that my peak was making my first million at the ripe age of 29, after the first album."

"Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built."

"I probably spent the first 20 years of my life wanting to be as American as possible. Through my 20s, and into my 30s, I began to become aware of how so much of my art and architecture has a decidedly Eastern character."

"It's nice coming to Nashville, and we have four-bedroom house and a dog, and we go swimming a lot. We get down here and spread out a lot, and I miss my sweet tea and my cornbread and my good southern cooking - but I'm down here eating pretty for two weeks and I'm ready to go back to New York City."

"Leaving home in a sense involves a kind of second birth in which we give birth to ourselves."