A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer it sings because it has a song.

I didn't really see the British punk movement if that's what it was as wildly original because I had been listening so intently to all the New York music since 1973 really.

I find that it isn't wise to attempt to judge people on their public persona and even on the music they make. Because I've met so many people whose music I cannot stand and they're very nice. At the same time I've met people whose music I've loved and they're not the person you've invested all this emotion in.

I can sing very comfortably from my vantage point because a lot of the music was about a loss of innocence there's innocence contained in you but there's also innocence in the process of being lost.

I've never intended to be controversial but it's very easy to be controversial in pop music because nobody ever is.

My first two records are so simply constructed. The reason isn't because I wanted to make simple music. It's because I don't really have the chops.

I think maybe because of the kind of music I sing people want to believe you're a diva. They can't believe after eight years and eight albums you're still relatively sane. I feel like they almost want me to throw something at somebody.

I wasn't very aware of pop music because I attended an arts school. For me it was all about jazz.

When I moved to New York I fell head over heels back into country music and probably 'cause I missed something about Texas.

What I was going for in the first two albums I didn't necessarily achieve. Because I was young and because it was my first time out. And the second album was such a 'quickie' sort of 'Let's just get it over with!' But the kind of music I make there's a lot of subtlety in it. And I think it takes a couple of listens to actually really get it.

When you grow up in the music industry trying to be Britney Spears because that's what sells records and then you realize 'All I have to do is be myself? I should have thought of that a long time ago ' it feels good to have success come from what's actually inside of you.

I came through folk music simply because it was easy to get into it.

There was this mountain village in Russia where my music was getting in on some German radio station. I remember this because music used to get up to Saskatchewan from Texas. Late at night after the local station closed down.

Also because people like to multitask in a way if you've got a bit of music on in the background and the lyrical content is making you want to listen to it then that would probably put you off the texting you wanted to do. I think people like things that just make that right kind of noise but leave your brain free to do something else.

I always preferred to hang out with the outcasts 'cause they were cooler they had better taste in music for one thing I guess because they had more time to develop one with the lack of social interaction they had!

A lot of the music that you listen to now is because of the things that the Meters did the Neville Brothers did and they're there the guys who invented those beats that the guys sample today. Such an enormous opportunity.

The Christian community latched onto a lot of my music because there were a lot of things about my struggle they related to. But I didn't really want to come out and be identified as a Christian because I didn't want to be a hypocrite because my life wasn't right.

I think it's a mistake where rap music is these days. It doesn't seem to be able to look out of the ghetto and that's ultimately unfortunate because it defines our limitations.

I like so many different kinds of music just because all I did was listen to the radio as a kid.

It's a really unfair world because life is where I am all day long we listen to American music. So I don't see why the radios in the U.S. cannot even put aside one hour a day just to play music that is not American.

I love music passionately. And because I love it I try to free it from barren traditions that stifle it.

I see a lot of connections between folk and punk music just because they're both subcorporate music - I mean traditionally.

Most recently we've been working in concert situations rather than clubs. because there aren't too many rooms there like Ronnie Scott's that are pure music rooms where people come specifically to listen to music.

If I had to play only for people who liked the music because they heard it on the radio it wouldn't make me happy. That's why I'm working so hard to have yes a profile as an artist but also a profile as a DJ.