Tori Amos
Well, I have a lot of food references in my work.
There's a richness to the old works if you look before the 1950s. The chord progressions and the language was more complicated, especially in the jazz and classical world.
A lot of songs are derivative of each other.
Sometimes you need to take a departure from what you do to something that's slightly different in order to get inspiration.
People listen to music the way they want to listen to music.
I think doing variations on a classical theme is a dangerous thing to do.
I get tired of wearing the same thing all the time too.
I wanted to do something creatively, having been a beached whale for many months and nursing my daughter.
It's fun to write your set list 20 minutes before and keep the crew very much on their toes.
Our world is a huge mess right now, and not big enough for masses of intolerant people.
As the sun sets, we've all had those nights where you question your choices and where your life is going.
Sometimes it seems like we're closer to our manicurists than we are our own souls. We have to find ways to get in touch with that and to listen to it and to hear it.
Some people say, I'd give anything to be 30 again. Well, I really wouldn't. I didn't enjoy being 30.
When we get in a routine we can become zombie-like and shut down.
I can see how the young girls really get hurt when their moms are critical, or vice versa when they're overly critical of their moms. It can be so painful.
When you're in your 20s, there's maybe a little room for you to not be at the top of your artistic game, if you look good on a magazine cover. When you're not on the cover of the magazines anymore, then you realize that the work has to be great.
I would love to compose something for dance before I kick the bucket, and I'm not closed-minded about the dance, or the dance company.
The world that we all knew before, could wake up in feeling safe... now it seems that everything has been turned upside down.
When the mothers start to shatter, then everything just comes undone.
My favorite saying is, 'If it's too loud, turn it up.'
It's been a thrilling journey - I have had to really learn that an orchestra is an entity - it's a creature. I have been calling it the dragon and the conductor is the dragon tamer. And you just have to... ride and don't let go and you will be fine.
I don't choose to analyze what I have done and I think that is the right choice, because then I won't be spending my time creating.
My father was a minister and so rock music was banned in our house.
I'm a classic emerald green Sixties Jaguar that nobody can own, but my husband is allowed to drive.
People assume that all artists make for terrible business people, but I'm in complete charge of my own career.
I produce the records. I don't hand over control to some really expensive producer who then talks to the record company and then tries to bend me to their will - for commercial purposes.
To me glamour isn't about being sparkly.
I had a very strict upbringing with my dad and was very close to my mum, who was extremely loving.
I don't feel I'm as good a mum as my mum was.
Romance is important to me, and to have a romance with your husband takes a bit of doing. The key is to make sure your partner misses you. That means you have to take yourself away.
Take a different route to the coffee shop to see what you can see and hear. When we get in a routine, we can become zombie-like and shut down. It's about discipline. You have to push yourself.
There are ways to stimulate being prolific, and part of that is making pilgrimages, and being open to listening, changing up the routine.
I would love to compose something for dance before I kick the bucket, and I'm not closed-minded about the dance, or the dance company. I would really just love to collaborate on that.
There is a time and a place for things. Sometimes one needs to put a filter on oneself. That can be a good thing.
My parents think I'm better under pressure.
You have to be clear what your message is and what you're doing. I mean, Miley Cyrus is an amazing talent, and sometimes you kind of just want to say, 'We know you're not Hannah Montana anymore. We know that, my dear. My darling. Now, go be great.'
I was very close to my mother as the youngest of three. She was my playmate.
Things go wrong all the time; you can't be precious about it.
I'm a hard worker. I get my hands dirty.
I like involved projects. I'm driven by the idea of characters and the song-cycle form is similar to a musical.
I have built my world through Native American mythology.
My ears are huge. If there's ever a problem with a plane I'm on, they could just put me on the wing and I'll land the sucker.
I started playing the piano when I was about two and got a scholarship to the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore when I was five. But I left when I was 11.
Not everybody wants to have the same career. I think what's difficult is when you have two people that do something very, very similar and they both, say, want the limelight. That's very tricky.
When one doesn't want the limelight, but is also creative in developing whatever it is they are, then you can have two equal people that aren't competing against each other. I think when you are in the same field, it's difficult to leave it outside and not compete. Then when the doors are closed; that pervades everything.
I'm very at home working with mythology.
For a song cycle to work, you have to feel these things when you hear them and you either have an emotional reaction to it or you don't. The plotline is something that gets woven together in the back-story.
The key things are about power and about growing up and realizing as you grow up that there are consequences for the choices you make, especially when you get seduced by power.
I'm not very social when I'm off the promo trail, because I step into wife and mother mode. It's very reclusive.