Places that have experienced great defeat experience a kind of rebirth, which I think America has to do - unless we want to get more decrepit. I don't think we have to destroy the place totally.

I think the minute you mention death, people run for the hills - unless it's heavy metal. People do not like death.

I've written songs for Shirley Bassey, Marianne Faithfull, and Linda Thompson. I sort of focus on these wonderful, aging divas. But maybe that's because I think I'm Christina Aguilera.

I think everybody identified at a pretty young age that I was fairly entranced with myself. And that I had to be tempered.

'Prima Donna' is my kind of love song to opera but it's not the full experience.

The Germany I was enthused with was more old fashioned and kind of romantic. I just got there, and the next thing you know, I had this huge gilded album. It was kind of an amazing experience because I didn't intend it to be that way.