I see myself as a survivor, and I'm not ashamed to say I'm a survivor. To me, survivor implies strength, implies that I have been through something and I made it out the other side.

I will never regret being there for my children, watching them, making sure they'll be okay. But I might regret not being there for them.

I can say I have forgiven my captors. That being said, I never want to see them again. I'm not OK with they did to me.

I don't feel famous personally, and I feel like when most people get to know me, they're like, 'Oh, she's just the same as everybody else.'

George Orwell's science-fiction classic 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' wasn't a failure because the future it predicted failed to come to pass. Rather, it was a resounding success because it helped us prevent that future.

The toughest thing about success is that you've got to keep on being a success.

Mostly, in song writing, my experience is that there isn't so much inspiration as hard work. You sit there for hours, days and weeks with a guitar and piano until something good comes. But the urge to write is something you have to have. A conviction, an ambition to write and never stop until you think, 'This is the best I can do.'

Appearances are not truth. But every politician knows that his or her image, as well as his or her actions, can make the difference between failure and success.