“To believe and yet to have no hope is to thirst beside a fountain.”

“She's no lady. Her songs are all unbelievably unhappy or lewd. It's called Blues. She sings about sore feet, sexual relations, baked goods, killing your lover, being broke, men called Daddy, women ...”

“It's important to attend funerals. It is important to view the body, they say, and to see it committed to earth or fire because unless you do that, the loved one dies for you again and again.”

“I am burning. I have to live, I have to sing, I want to transform myself into a thousand different characters and carry their life with me onto the stage where it's so bright and so dark at the sam...”

“My first advantage: I have everything. My second advantage: this is just another island. My third advantage: I am bigger than it all.”

“Adelaide believes that all children should have enough grown-ups around who love them so that one can tell them to fight, one can tell them not to, and one can tell them not to worry so much.”

“If you're not making someone else's life better, then you're wasting your time. Your life will become better by making other lives better.”

“You are protected, in short, by your ability to love!”

“Life becomes easier and more beautiful when we can see the good in other people.”