"The essence of creativity is the belief that authenticity is the rarest and most beautiful asset."

"It is another's fault if he be ungrateful, but it is mine if I do not give. To find one thankful man, I will oblige a great many that are not so."

"Success consecrates the most offensive crimes."

"Where compassion abides, fear and resentment lose their dominion. In this truth lies the bedrock of all virtue — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"Anybody can have a birthday. It requires nothing. Murderers have birthdays. It's the opposite of anything that I believe in. And I don't like at work where you stop everything to sing 'Happy Birthday' to someone. I feel like that's for children."

"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 no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe I deserved my friends."

"Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices."