I knew I'd have to go to work in real estate or something else or I could never finish my novel.

I was 37 years old. I wanted to support myself by writing.

I was dictating to my mother when I was 5.

I'd like to get out of here without having to talk to the producer.

I'm a lousy journalist.

My abiding theme is separations.

The more interesting the 9-to-5 work is, the more it takes away from my real work, which is writing.

Writers are the lunatic fringe of publishing.

It takes far less courage to kill yourself than it takes to make yourself wake up one more time. It's harder to stay where you are than to get out. For everyone but you, that is.

It's astonishing what some women will put up with just to have a warm body. Some of the brightest women I know are just obsessed with that search. It's very sad.

My first book took five years to write and I made $1,000 on it. The second took three years and I made $3,000. All this time I was a housewife being supported by a husband. I was very lucky.

I started singing at the Met when I was seven, and the competition was so fierce that it really prepared me.

I started working when I was seven and I was working for five dollars a night at the Met.

I've learned to take jobs as an actress that is meaningful to me because I've never taken a job for the money.

I know that I am my worst critic. I know that if I can walk away from the set at the end of the day and feel that I did the best job I could and feel proud, that's what will satisfy me.

I try to keep myself as sane and as grounded as possible by surrounding myself with normal people, such as all the friends that I've had from when I was little.

I've been in the studio experimenting on making a CD of my own. I'm trying out different producers, styles, sounds. With music, as opposed to acting, you are not playing a character. You are showing people who you are. I really want to have my spirit in it.