I'm a firm believer that lighting affects mood and twinkly lights on strings bring something magical to occasions ranging from concerts to weddings though I'm fond of using them as year-round home decor. There's a reason why they're sometimes called fairy lights. When the night is right there aren't any strings at all.

I daresay one good concert justifies a week of satisfaction at home.

The way I feel today as long as my health is good and I can handle myself well and people still come to my concerts still buy my CDs I'll keep playing until I feel like I can't.

People forget how outcast 'They Might Be Giants' can be. They have a reputation for writing really deft funny clever melodies and they also make a lot of music for kids which is terrific but when you see them in concert they can rock the house.

The fans of 'The Hunger Games ' of the book are very passionate. It's funny: Even at my concerts there are people holding up 'Cinna' signs.

There's something dangerous about what's funny. Jarring and disconcerting. There is a connection between funny and scary.

I cannot give a single concert at which I do not play one piece after the other in an agony of terror because my memory threatens to fail me. This fear torments me for days beforehand.

Being famous gets me good concert tickets good tables in restaurants good seats at sporting events and that's really about it.

My goals have changed throughout my life. At one time it was winning awards selling out concert dates selling more albums than anyone else. Now my goals are to see my grandchildren grown live a long and healthy life with my family and friends and travel the world.

My mother was the first woman in the county in Indiana where we were born in Jay County to have a college degree. She was educated as a pianist and she wanted to concertize but when the war came she was married had a family so she started teaching.

I had a number of very strong personalities in my family. My father was a concert flutist the solo flute for Toscanini.

I didn't know if I had the music for it or if I could pull off the larger concert experience. Then I realized if I can just continue to be myself I'll be all right.

In those days a concert was a personal experience. I wanted to be as close as possible to the audience and of course big stadiums didn't enable you to do that. It wasn't my style.

Instead of plotting the demise of the traditional family as some politicians and religious leaders would have you believe gay people mow their lawns and watch 'American Idol' and video their children's concerts and have the same hopes and dreams that their straight counterparts do.

My experience as a school nurse taught me that we need to make a concerted effort all of us to increase physical fitness activity among our children and to encourage all Americans to adopt a healthier diet that includes fruits and vegetables but there is more.

I think there is a new awareness in this 21st century that design is as important to where and how we live as it is for museums concert halls and civic buildings.

I had just lost my dad and I remembered all the songs we used to go and hear at concerts and the records around the house and sometimes we'd play together.