My dad was a homicide cop in the gay neighborhood in the city when gay neighborhoods were desperate depressing sad places run by the mob. The only gay people he'd met when I came out to him were corpses.

There is too much fathering going on just now and there is no doubt about it fathers are depressing.

I realized that I loved using computers to create something but being an architect just wasn't going to keep me interested. The idea of a life spent obsessing over bathroom details for an Upper East Side penthouse was pretty depressing.

Right now computers which are supposed to be our servant are oppressing us.

We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.

Comfort in expressing your emotions will allow you to share the best of yourself with others but not being able to control your emotions will reveal your worst.

No art can be noble which is incapable of expressing thought and no art is capable of expressing thought which does not change.

What I dream of is an art of balance of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter - a soothing calming influence on the mind rather like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.

After World War II great strides were made in modern Japanese architecture not only in advanced technology allowing earthquake resistant tall buildings but expressing and infusing characteristics of traditional Japanese architecture in modern buildings.

I think that all the anger and cynicism comes from suppressing things that we always wanted.

I think there is a big difference between expressing the pain and anger that many African Americans and other people of color may feel versus language that I think now crosses the line and goes into hate.

When you start suppressing feelings at an early age it hurts you down the road. Full expression of anger and pain is very important.

But one of the hardest things for me to do was to access anger. I could do it on stage. But when I did it on film it was hard for me. That probably has to do with the intimacy of film. And my own personal issues with expressing anger. So I had to learn how to do that.

It's a very difficult thing for people to accept seeing women act out anger on the screen. We're more accustomed to seeing men expressing rage and women crying.

What influenced me was Tori Amos who was unapologetic about expressing anger through music and Sinead O'Connor. Those two in particular were really moving for me and very inspiring before I wrote 'Jagged Little Pill.'

When someone says that I'm angry it's actually a compliment. I have not always been direct with my anger in my relationships which is part of why I'd write about it in my songs because I had such fear around expressing anger as a woman.

Expressing anger is a form of public littering.

Man I hate to get depressing on you but I don't have a game. I'm so alone so depressed so dark no.

I like singer-songwriters and I find sad songs comforting rather than depressing. It makes you realise you're not alone in the world.