Once you figure out what respect tastes like, it tastes better than attention. But you have to get there.
Pink
The willow is my favorite tree. I grew up near one. It's the most flexible tree in nature and nothing can break it - no wind, no elements, it can bend and withstand anything.
'Sexy' doesn't have to come with the price tag of being dumb.
You can't move mountains by whispering at them.
Consumerism diverts us from thinking about women's rights, it stops us from thinking about Iraq, it stops us from thinking about what's going on in Africa - it stops us from thinking in general.
When you have a dark side, nothing is ever as good as it seems.
I decided at 15 that I didn't want to be one of those artists that gets up and sings love songs they don't mean. I decided that I was going to be me to the fullest extent, that my songs were going to reflect relationships I've had, things I've been through, and even the stuff I'm embarrassed about.
Loads of my friends are lesbians, and it really annoys me that gay people aren't allowed to get married in most parts of America. I'd go on a march for gay rights any time.
For the first few years we paid all the bills first and divided what was left as salary. Sometimes that was $50 a week.
Sage is cleansing and sacred.
I'm taking my rats. Those are my friends for the tour. Thelma and Louise. They're so cute.
The aggressive side of me comes across in my music, but I'm just a sweet girl.
I'm never the kind of person who's sitting at home reading the charts and basing how I feel about myself or even my career on stats. I've always based it on, 'Am I doing the best that I can do?'
My dad raised me with some good advice: 'Always tell the truth. Always shoot from the hip. You might not have many friends, but you'll never have enemies, because people will always know where you're coming from.'
Cutting, and suicide, two very different symptoms of the same problem, are gaining on us. I personally don't know a single person who doesn't know at least two of these victims personally.
I've always loved to prove people wrong. I want to be able to cross color lines, because in music, there really is no barrier.
I've always felt like the underdog, and I'm comfortable with that label.
Every album, I'm worried that I'm a dork and a fraud - 'What if I can't sing anymore?' Then I stop thinking and start playing guitar, and I realize that it's okay to suck, and move forward.
I change my mind so much I need two boyfriends and a girlfriend.
I'm very much in the trenches, and I don't live in the lap of luxury. I come from a working-class military family. We watch the news and read the paper and vote, so there's always something to be upset about. I always have a certain amount of angst in my back pocket.
I want art to make me think. In order to do that, it may piss me off, or make me uncomfortable. That promotes awareness and change, or at least some discussion.
I wanted to do it my way with my career, and I had this arrogant notion that people weren't just interested in my music but me as a person. That was my bit of arrogance, I guess. That's something I learned from Madonna. I was a fan right from the first time I heard 'Holiday.'
Sometimes I wish I was poetic and subtle. I write very bold and blunt and tell it like it is.
People are always so surprised when they meet me. Firstly, that I'm 'so tiny', and secondly that I'm 'so sweet'. They seem surprised that they're not scared of me.
I'm very involved with PETA - People for Ethical Treatment of Animals - and Greenpeace and a lot of women's shelter and clothing giveaways.
I have to speak for myself. As far as videos go - casting, the artwork, everything - I'm completely hands-on. You have to be if you want your points across.
I was a very defensive kid 'cause I was really sensitive underneath and didn't want people to know. So I came off as very tough and very angry.
For me, there is only love and fear.
I have no idea why anyone likes me! I am very polarizing. It's either absolutely love or absolutely can't-be-around-for-more-than-three-seconds.
Long-term relationships are an everyday choice. It's harder to be in a marriage than it is to bounce from one relationship to the next.
I think you learn more about yourself in the context of a relationship than you can outside of it.
I love the shows that are in dingy little dark clubs, smoky, no production whatsoever.
Big productions, to me, are great - like, I love going to Vegas and seeing shows - but I think that sometimes it's distracting, especially when you are there to listen to the music.
I'm such a control freak, and it's very hard for me to lose my inhibitions without something chemical inside me.
My stage show is raw and unpredictable.
In the late '90s, R&B was dominant in the radio, and the white kids were taking it mainstream.
Cameron Diaz was so cute at the MTV Movie Awards when she pulled her skirt up and wiped her armpits.
A lot of people have problems with public confrontation, but it doesn't worry me at all. I can handle myself. I know my martial arts.
Record companies, I found out, can put out compilations without your permission.
My mom took all of my behavior personally. Everything I did, she thought it was an act of rebellion against her. But it was just me being me.
I have never really encountered anybody that was rude to me. Well, not to my face anyway.
There are 50 new tabloids every year, and I'm in them, and I read them, and I do stupid things.
I just get bored easily. As I'm sure other people do too.
Beautiful has never been my goal.
Today, charting your own course isn't just more necessary than ever before. It's also much easier - and much more fun.
Having a child is the best thing that could happen.
Pink is what I do. Alecia is who I am. The world has taken Pink and turned it into this thing, a brand - a snarl.
Women have fought so long and hard for our rights and equality, and now all our attention is put on being a size 0.
I was brought up to question authority, and thank God for that.
My favorite books, art pieces, films, and music, always have something jarring about them.
