“Whenever there was a choice between music and anything else, music won hands down every time.”

For a Jewish guy, I’ve recorded a lot of Christmas albums.

Fame is always a shock to the system; there’s no school to go to, there are no books to read, and when it hits you, it’s a surprise. You could be working for 10, 20 years and when it finally hits you, you get knocked down.

I come from nowhere Brooklyn, New York. Williamsburg, Brooklyn. These days Williamsburg is kind of a hip area, but when I grew up there, the taxi drivers wouldn’t even go over the bridge, it was so dangerous.

I stay glued to my piano and my work. I don’t look up. I write, I produce, I do the next project, I do my job. I don’t look up, and I try to be kind. I try to be kind to people. That’s what I do.

You say something stupid and the next morning you’re in the headlines.

My goal was always to be involved in music that would outlive me. And maybe that’s actually happening.

You can’t possibly prepare for what happens to you the day you hit No. 1 and people treat you differently.

I think the people who are out there for fame get themselves in a lot of trouble.

There’s just no quiet in Vegas.

I was always into the music. Music, in general, saved my life. But the fame part… I would look up, see what was going on around me, the reporters and photographers and all, and then I would just go back to making my music.

QVC has been very good to me.

Misfits aren’t misfits among other misfits.

I couldn’t bear the road anymore. I’m sure that a lot of people who have been on the road a long time will say the same thing. After a while, waiting for bedroom service and planes – I wanted to go home.

I am a musician. My passion for music has obliterated everything in its path for my entire life.

Everybody has to find out: who are you? What do you believe in?

No one person or material thing could ever come close to the feeling I get when the music is right.

The result [Republicans winning the Senate] would be devastating for reproductive choice, the environment, civil liberties, Social Security and health care, as well as corporate accountability.

Hearing the record and seeing the response is affirming that it was the right time and right choice.

Food is my drug of choice.

There are times we spent money when we shouldn’t, the choices we make define the results we get

Choices not chance determine your destiny.

If you’re doing an indie and you have time, sometimes you can do take after take after take, but if you’re working in television on that filming schedule,

If there is no freedom of expression, then the beauty of life is lost. Participation in a society is not an artistic choice, it’s a human need.

It is because of our unassailable enthusiasm, our profound reverence for education, that we habitually demand of it the impossible. The teacher is expected to perform a choice and varied series of miracles.