Just watching my cats can make me happy.
Paula Cole
I think it's important to find the little things in everyday life that make you happy.
Walking is magic. Can't recommend it highly enough. I read that Plato and Aristotle did much of their brilliant thinking together while ambulating. The movement, the meditation, the health of the blood pumping, and the rhythm of footsteps... this is a primal way to connect with one's deeper self.
The flower has opened, has been in the sun and is unafraid. I'm taking more chances; I'm bold and proud.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Being a writer is a very private, internal process. Ultimately I am more the writer, being an introvert.
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.
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.
But at the age of 44, I sure hope to be a better businesswoman. I want to get the music straight to my fans.
I'm accepting I'm not living that younger, dreamed version of myself in the big city.
I'm a songwriter who's put my childhood memories and teenage angst into songs.
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.
I've left Bethlehem, and I feel free. I've left the girl I was supposed to be, and some day I'll be born.
I hope and believe we are paving a better future for female artists to come.
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 find that 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.
When you're a plebeian you want success, and when you're successful you want to be a plebeian again.
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.
I'm glad I made a piece of art that can be interpreted so widely. Art is always interpreted subjectively.
I like doing the crossword puzzle in the New York Times, not watching E! on TV.
Didgeridoo was something I picked up while I was on tour in Australia with Peter Gabriel in '93. I found out later that it's only meant to be played by men.
The monsters are in your own head.
Feminists were psyched that I had armpit hair.
I don't like to sit and bask in my own awards. Awards represent artistic death to me.
I'm used to adversity and working really well in difficult situations. It was hard for me to accept the success.
I wanted to be a cheerleader, like my sister was - all the most popular and beautiful girls are cheerleaders and I wanted that, and it demolished this vision of myself. That's when I found the piano, when music saved me; that's when I first attempted to write my own songs.
At the age of 15 months my daughter was diagnosed with very bad asthma, and essentially I put my career on hold for a good eight years.
I'm raising my daughter with her grandparents in the picture, and that feels good.
I see my albums as working diaries, as living scrapbooks of me and my life.
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.
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.
I like women who can throw a ball and laugh loud and have some spine, and I like men who don't mind cooking dinner.
