Paula Cole

“I'd love to act. I feel that it's another naked, mysterious challenge, like jazz. It kind of intrigues me in the same way.”

“I like doing the crossword puzzle in the New York Times, not watching E! on TV.”

“But looking back, the fact was that I had a couple of big hits too quickly and it was simply too much for an introvert like me to handle.”

“I think of my shows as family reunions. I give 100% every time. I just do. It's a huge therapeutic release. Also I love my touring family. And I love my audiences very much.”

“I'm still trying to find out who Paula Cole is. I always am - and I always will be - my real, inside self, which has no name.”

“I hope and believe we are paving a better future for female artists to come.”

“The flower has opened, has been in the sun and is unafraid. I'm taking more chances; I'm bold and proud.”

“People have become less discriminating listeners, which is tragic, really. There's a lot of emperor's new clothes out there, whether they're female or male solo acts. That bothers me. It's hard to break through, and it's like climbing Mount Everest if you actually do.”

“I struggled with being in the public eye, losing my anonymity when my star rose quickly in the late 90's. But I need the challenge of showing up and getting up there to spill my guts and connect with my loyal folks.”

“Just watching my cats can make me happy.”

“I'm raising my daughter with her grandparents in the picture, and that feels good.”

“For me music is a vehicle to bring our pain to the surface, getting it back to that humble and tender spot where, with luck, it can lose its anger and become compassion again.”

“I'm glad I made a piece of art that can be interpreted so widely. Art is always interpreted subjectively.”

“If not for music, I would probably be a very frustrated scientist. It's one way to answer the question, 'What is the meaning of life?' I feel music answers it better.”

“I'm a songwriter who's put my childhood memories and teenage angst into songs.”

“I was curious and hungry at a young age, and jazz was such a mystery to me, an ocean where you can express yourself in the moment. It represented freedom, it represented wearing wings and going somewhere with music.”

“The older I get, the more I see that there really aren't huge zeniths of happiness or a huge abyss of darkness as much as there used to be. I tend to walk a middle ground.”

“Feminists were psyched that I had armpit hair.”

“So I'm writing more highly personalized and intellectual music, and I think that's good. It might take longer to find me, but I think that niche is perhaps underserved, so I'm going to serve that.”

“Being a writer is a very private, internal process. Ultimately I am more the writer, being an introvert.”