I like the music. I don’t like the business. I get very tired of the travel and moving, constantly moving. But the hour-and-a-half that I’m making music, I’m one of the happiest people on earth.

It was kind of easier for me to do records that didn’t take a year or two years of my life to write and to make.

I started singing when I was five. I grew up the youngest of four kids who all studied classical piano, so you could say I’ve been listening to music ever since the moment of conception.

I don’t believe that human beings are necessarily monogamous.

My voice and the styles and genres I sing all express my appreciation for what I hear.

I just try to speak passionately about things I’m involved in and moved by.

Country music was a part of my life. Now it isn’t. We had a good relationship, really, but we wanted each other at arm’s length. The people in Nashville didn’t want to be responsible for my looks or my actions. But they sure did like the listeners I brought.

I’m a singer and as long as I can sing – which, thank God, is something that I still seem to be able to do – I’d like to carry on making records.

Music has the power to heal, to bring people together, and to inspire change.

In order to be truly creative, you have to be willing to take risks and step out of your comfort zone.

I never fit in anywhere growing up, and that made me realize I was destined to create my own path.

I’m an emotional singer, and I put all of myself into my songs.

Music has always been my religion.

I wanted to write songs that would play themselves on stage, songs that sweep you through their current.

I often say fame is kind of like a drug or like sugar: when it’s controlling you it doesn’t feel good at all.

I feel like at 50 I’ve decided to become a rock star, which is, you know, typical of me. I always seem to work backwards.

I don’t sing anything that hurts my voice.

I’m nearly 50. I’m past being photographed falling out of bars.

If you knew how meat was made, you ‘d probably lose your lunch,

There are days when I still want to be able to do what I want when I want, but there’s also something wonderful about being secure.

As a songwriter you have an umbilical cord to the song and it’s hard to expand on your understanding of the lyrics. Whereas when you cover a song you can create your own reason why you’re attached to it.

Television really has been my vehicle. I don’t get played on the radio much, so I’ve relied on TV a lot.

I think I have allowed my voice to experiment with the different genres. And I think that I have just really enjoyed the journey of getting to know my voice and seeing what it’s capable of, what it’s not capable of.

I mean, I am fully aware of my influence and my responsibility to society in general representing the gay community. But in the same time, I don’t represent the entire gay community because it’s a vast, vast community, as one can imagine.

My public image is so low-key, but I get to travel the world and still have an audience and it’s really amazing. I don’t take that for granted.

We’re in a period where society seems very attracted to flash, and that seeps into people’s musical taste.

Justin Bieber looks like a lesbian. Hot as sh*t!

I think I was a singer before I came out of the womb. I also think that the way you live your life, and the choices you make parallel what doors open up for you.

[on singer Cass Elliot] It’s the timbre of her voice and also her attitude and being a big woman like that and being confident. I’m very attracted to that sort of confidence and individuality. She was cool.

I don’t sing in the shower but hiking, yes. Every day I sing a little something, to the radio or to the dogs, or a song will come into my head and I’ll sing a line of it, randomly.

[on her idol, Peggy Lee] I became a complete junkie for her . . . She represents an era that is leaving us, one where vocals were king.

I think I have always known it, but I didn’t really know there was a name for it, or that it was different, but I have always felt inclined towards women. I have felt inclined towards men – not as deeply or sexually as towards women – but I’m definitely attracted to men.

One of the reasons I wouldn’t sleep with a man is because I wouldn’t feel equal, both in that I feel more spiritually advanced than men, and because society places men over women. How do you feel equal when you’re with a man?

Minimal is the word I’d use to describe how I live and dress, and it’s also how I sing. I’m not a big fan of overemoting.

I think masculinity is bravado against the mystery of the universe of women. It’s just a fear of not knowing what women have that’s so powerful. It’s this shield they put up to try to get closer.

It’s just a theory really, but I have always thought that your physical surroundings can shape your voice and personality.

He had total love in his eyes when he performed. He was the total androgenous beauty. I would practice Elvis in front of the mirror when I was twelve or thirteen years old.

I never get tired of exploring Americana or country music, and I always have a little bit of a crooner in me that never seems to go away.

And I’m not even just talking artists, every single person in this nation has the right to be themselves, live life go team go. I love you Canada, thank you so much.

I think I don’t sing as hard as I used to sing. I used to kind of hit the accelerator a lot back in my youth, but now it’s just being able to control it, and not work it so hard and use more of an emotional or sub textual kind of approach to singing.

I believe in monogamy if that’s what a couple decides upon together, but it all depends on the personal history and culture of the two involved.

Traveling renews you.

I just really allowed my muse to be my guide and I just go with whatever I’m feeling.

Spirituality comes from questioning everything but at the same time accepting everything. You can even be spiritual watching TV. When the ad comes on and says, “Don’t hate me because I am beautiful,” question that.

I never, my producer never, we never let myself just sing. We were always trying to get the perfect vocal.

I just try to live a really simple, natural life, because obviously, life has an impact on your voice.

I don’t consider my homosexuality a political thing. I consider it a sexual and spiritual thing. I only started going to political rallies to meet women.

Spend time reflecting on your emotional and physical existence and how that applies to the voice. You have to apply that wisdom and experience when you sing – it’s what comes through.

I sort of believe that my voice was preordained; I’m a Buddhist who believes in reincarnation so I think that my voice is a few lifetimes old.

Sweet, sweet burn of sun and summer wind, and you my friend, my new fun thing, my summer fling.

Even through the darkest phase
Be it thick or thin
Always someone marches brave
Here beneath my skin.

I certainly fall in love with artists. I think that’s probably the aspiration of an artist, to make a listener empathize so deeply that they do fall in love with you.

I think I fall into a lot of cracks in terms of I’m too something. I’m too this, I’m too that. And my music has never really had a home. I’ve been this floating alternative. I’m too mainstream for alternative. I’m too alternative for mainstream. And I’m just kind of wandering.

There needn’t be a distinction between your life and your music.

Heartache is very fertile ground for song-making but so is happiness, so is absolute bliss.

I think I have a better sense of my weaknesses – being self-important, selfish and having a big ego probably triggers all the other stuff. I can see myself more clearly.

I grew up in cattle country-that’s why I became a vegetarian. Meat stinks, for the animals, the environment, and your health.

I’m also alternative because of Canada – there’s something romantic about being Canadian. We’re a relatively unpopulated, somewhat civilized, and clean and resourceful country. I always push the fact that I’m Canadian.

When women make their image about youth and sexuality, and not about intellect, that’s kind of a dead-end road. So I think it’s a combination of self-entrapment and entrapment by society.

I think that the older I get and the more comfortable I get with myself, the more I realize that art is about relinquishing control of your emotions and being vulnerable and innocent.

To dance is human, to polka is divine.

You have to respect your audience. Without them, you’re essentially standing alone, singing to yourself.

Look. Art knows no prejudice, art knows no boundaries, art doesn’t really have judgement in it’s purest form. So just go, just go.

I’m proud that I was one of the first ones out, singing loud and proud.

Life is so impermanent that it’s not about somebody else or things around me, it’s about knowing you are completely alone in this world and being content inside.

The sky is an infinite movie to me. I never get tired of looking at what’s happening up there.

The older I get, the more I embrace who I am.

We all love animals. Why do we call some ‘pets’ and others ‘dinner?’