People come up and say, 'Hey, I know you!' They're middle-aged WOMEN and big burly guys. They say, 'Don't tell ANYONE, but I WATCH Felicity, and I THINK it's GREAT.'

They say Chicago is for HATERS. No one will just sweat each other and say, 'Oh, you're so GOOD,' if you're not. Which is another REASON I'm inspired to stay.

Children OFTEN ASK me, they SAY, 'Well, how do you BECOME a fighter pilot, or how do you become an ASTRONAUT, or...?' And I say, 'Love what you're doing and do it very well.'

You have to have SOMETHING in your life that's more important than the work. PEOPLE don't really like to ADMIT that. They SAY, 'Oh, my work is my most important thing.'

I've also gotten messages from MEN and women who are not the most ATTRACTIVE, in their minds, or are self-conscious about their weight. They're thanking me for doing SONGS like 'Proud Mary' and shaking a tailfeather, because they say I seem real comfortable in my skin and it MADE them want to be comfortable in theirs.

You're LIVING your life the entire time in both worlds - it's not like they say, 'Action' and you're like, 'Here we GO, we're in this thing,' because that's where BAD ACTING comes from.

I'm very ticklish. They SAY being tickled is a FORM of TORTURE.

We don't have a DIVINE RIGHT to SUCCESS. So I AGREE with a lot of politicians out there when they say, 'We've got serious issues.' We do: immigration, infrastructure. I think income inequality's one of them.

As a SINGER, I've been criticized for sounding feminine. They say I don't belong in any CATEGORY, male or female, pop or jazz. But EARLY on, I SAW my suffering as my salvation.