It's very, very hard to affect culture. And you can get surprised thinking you're farther down the path of change than you really are because, frankly, most of us like the way things are.
If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume and come back as a new character, would you slow down? Or speed up?
There is nothing worse than sitting in the make-up trailer knowing that the whole crew are twiddling their thumbs waiting for you to change your hair from straight to curly or up to down. Sometimes it can't be avoided.
It's always the small people who change things. It's never the politicians or the big guys. I mean, who pulled down the Berlin wall? It was all the people in the streets. The specialists didn't have a clue the day before.
I know that government doesn't have the all solutions that real solutions do not come from the top down. Instead, the ways to end poverty come from all of us. We are part of the solution.
These days, government employees are better off in almost every area: pay, benefits, time off, and security, on top of working fewer hours. They can thrive even in a down economy.
I think that's what activates the Tea Party Movement. What they see is the government interfering with their lives and with the inheritance of their children. Are we going to pass down liberty or deficits? And that's really what this movement is abou...
I welcome the President and working with him to try to get some of that medical malpractice reform so we can get the cost of health care to come down.
I am hopeful for the American people that we can actually improve the outlook for bringing down costs in health care.
This modern mania for interfering in other's lives, usually under the guise of health and safety concerns, is highly irritating and counterproductive. Down with the nanny state.
As long as we decline to allow sick, uninsured people to just lie down and die on the side of the road, everybody has to have insurance for the health care system to work sanely.
After my tour I had time to stay at home, be with my boyfriend and hang out with friends and that brought me down to earth and helped me write music from a more relaxed place.
Furnishing a home is no different than going into the studio and making music. You want to make sure you've pared down all the extra details so that in the end, every stitch has a context uniquely yours.
I do go through a mini depression because one minute there are people yelling and screaming for me on stage and the next I'm at home and it's dead quiet. So it takes a while to come down.
I love the smell of skunks. Driving down a back road and you smell a skunk that's sprayed or been hit. I love that. It reminds me of home.
I consider myself a D.I.Y. home improvement guy. In a prior life, I completely gutted a house - redid the plumbing, wiring, moved sewage pipes, knocked down walls, everything.
I have never met a woman who works who doesn't feel guilty. I mean we all deny it like crazy but deep down there is always that voice saying you should be at home.
I've always been active - outdoors, on the beach, playing - and so to go home and have to sit on my couch and relax... it's frustrating. Sometimes, you just have to really shut yourself down.
I had always been kind of obsessed with making a home of my own and was always drawing rooms that I wanted to live in, down to pictures on the wall and the faces that would be in the photographs, and how the couches would be situated.
Well, no. I was getting into trouble messing around with it for roles. So one night I went home, cut it down with a pair of scissors and then got in the bath and shaved it all off. I've never looked back.
If I went on vacation, I'd rather go camping than stay in some four-star hotel... My friends treat me the same at home. They just want to sit down with you and have a beer.
