I don't say I was 'proceeding down a thoroughfare;' I say I 'walked down the road'. I don't say I 'passed a hallowed institute of learning;' I say I 'passed a school'.

You don't wear all your jewellery at once. You're much more believable if you talk in your own voice.

I was the big, bossy older sister, full of enthusiasms, mad fantasies, desperate urges to be famous, and anxious to be a saint - a settled sort of saint, not one who might have to suffer or die for her faith.

I am much more understanding of people than I used to be when I was young - people were either villainous or wonderful. They were painted in very bright colours. The bad side of it - and there is a corollary to everything - is that when we get older, we fuss more. I used to despise people who fussed.

I think I was dealt a good hand. I have happy genes.

You say to yourself: 'What could people, in all these countries, find in my books?' and yet I think we're all the same, anywhere. Everybody is a hero or a dramatic person in their own story if you just know where to look.

As a memorial, I'd like a statue. Not of me, but a little modern statue, in marble or bronze, maybe of a bird, in a park where children could play and people going by could see it. On it, I'd just like it to say: 'Maeve Binchy, storyteller' and people could look at the name and remember that they'd seen it somewhere else.

I believed that old people never laughed. I thought they sighed a lot and groaned. They walked with sticks, and they didn't like children on bicycles or roller skates... or with big dogs.

I'm getting better, happier, and nicer as I grow older, so I would be terrific in a couple of hundred years time.

I have an irregular heartbeat, so that means a fair amount of medication - and I have blood pressure pills, too, but no vitamins or supplements.

If I had my life to live all over again, I really think I would have been a fit person. Looking around me, I realise that the men and women who walked and ran and swam and played sport look better and feel better than the rest of us.

When I was little, my mum would take me to see the orchestra, tell me to close my eyes and think about the story the music was telling. I always spoke about colours. I'd talk about how purple the oboe was.

I dress as a combination of space cowgirl and San Francisco art teacher.

When I got to NYU, I had applied based on playing folk music, and they said, 'You're the banjo girl,' so I thought ,'OK, I'm the banjo girl.'

The music industry is so cool because it's constantly changing.

I'm a feminist, so it's just a really nice creative energy to work with a lot of women.

I've always measured a good day as one where I can read, write, and run.

It's not like I see colours. It's just, for me, an incredibly strong association between music and colour.

I just kind of, like, know who I am. I think that comes from having an incredibly strong sense of purpose for a very long time.

What I love about going home is that, if I turn my phone off or don't open my computer, nothing's changed. Obviously, the world has changed for me, but home looks and feels exactly the same.

It's funny because, based on the music I was making before, if you'd asked me who was the one gatekeeper or influencer whom I'd want to hear my music, I don't think Pharrell would be the first person I'd pick.

As a producer, as a songwriter, I've spent a lot of time either in my bedroom or in studios, alone.

If you're not changing, you're not growing; you're not being present. Change is essential.

Being 'back in my body' means being able to do the things I love, but do them in the way I love, and in my way, and in my time, giving myself the opportunity to just be me.

The only thing I wanted to do in my music is be human and communicate all the aspects of that, which often means being vulnerable.

I played in orchestras all through high school and taught myself how to play guitar.

New York is so strange. Every time I'm there, I very rarely see someone who's dressed cool.

Something really intense happened to me during the 'SNL' performance. It felt like the person I was made to be faced the person I'm becoming. It was the first time I felt like I was able to make any sense of ownership of my work.

I think so many of the themes from the natural world mimic emotional themes in our lives.

'Alaska' was filmed at my family's farm in Maryland; 'Dog Years' was filmed at the summer camp I grew up going to in Maine.

Writer's block is your self-critic getting in the way, because creativity will just flow otherwise.

Folk music usually romanticises the road. 'Back in my Body' tells the opposite story.

I've always been a very visual creator. I make mood boards or sit with coloured pencils and scribble and try and figure out what I'm trying to work through musically.

I just didn't really know who I was, so I didn't really know what I sounded like. And so I did a lot of writing, and I studied abroad, and I fell in love, and, like... I got to be like any other college student.

I want to have a long career. But that's based on wanting people to buy into my voice and not into a fabricated image.

Part of success is having a good story, and as a journalist, I totally understand. But it meant that my many, many years of focus and hard work got kind of prepackaged into a Cinderella story. I'm super grateful that it happened, but it left me feeling like I never got to be a full human in the experience.

Graduating from college and starting your life as an adult is a giant transition no matter what.

It's been really fun to see what happens to my body when I don't have an instrument attached to it.

The main rhythmic loop in 'Alaska' is me just patting on my jeans.

I find, as a woman and as a producer, I spend a lot of time convincing people I actually did the work.

I grew up in a really rural area in Maryland.

I spent my whole life in Maryland, but I wanted to experience more - fighting to get to urban areas where there was culture.

I feel really held in being vulnerable. That's always been the kind of music that I've gravitated to as well, but to feel really supported by my audience in that is a real privilege.

When I write songs, it happens very quickly, sometimes 10 to 15 minutes, and I draw inspiration from everything.

The thing about fans is you don't get to choose your own. But every time I meet a fan, I'm like, wow, we would totally be at the same house party.

I do play a lot of instruments. I started with the harp when I was young and then sort of moved to guitar and piano.

Friends came on the road, came on tour, came in my music videos; I got in the studio with them. I'm a really loyal person, and I don't have a really large group of friends, but the people I hang out with I really, really care about, and they continue to be a part of my life.

You need music that is compelling and intellectual, but you also need music that just feels good and you can laugh about and dance to, and I think I'm trying to marry the two in some way.

I spend a lot of time reading and try to make sure that I can get a little bit of alone time every day.

That's why people come to live music, right? To see something go wrong, something human, something vulnerable.