I never did anything for free. Other than dancing in clubs. I give that away for nothing.
I am rich from the bequests other gifted people have seen fit to leave to me.
I'm glad I am a woman who once danced naked in the Mediterranean Sea at midnight.
I believe in joy, but I believe in the flip-side, agony.
Alcohol is a very patient drug. It will wait for the alcoholic to pick it up one more time.
My only true harmony lies deep within my soul, wherever that is. I know that somehow I am in tune with the universe.
My anger made me drink as an escape from reality, a way of forgetting. But you don't know when the medicinal effect ends and the poisoning begins. . . This is my sixth year of sobriety. Overcoming alcoholism has been my greatest challenge and my greatest reward.
I regard myself as a true American musician, and I play every style that is my heritage.
In fact, entertainment has taken the place of celebration in the present world. But entertainment is quite different from celebration; entertainment and celebration are never the same. In celebration you are a participant; in entertainment you are only a spectator. In entertainment you watch others playing for you. So while celebration is active, entertainment is passive. In celebration you dance, while in entertainment you watch someone dancing, for which you pay him.
I would change very little because I have been very, very fortunate. A lot of things fell into place for me simply by happenstance. When that happens you don't really want to change anything, even if you could. Editorially my regrets are few and for the most part minor. I look back on my first published book and think I held on to it too long, babied it too long.
An adventure is never an adventure while it's happening. Challenging experiences need time to ferment, and adventure is simply physical and emotional discomfort recollected in tranquillity.