I get really cool gifts and I know this sounds really lame but I think one of the best gifts I've ever received was the Easy Bake Oven when I was younger. When I was little I loved to bake! I want to get one now so I can make weird mini desserts for people.

I do think sometimes there's danger in guest appearance mania. I've seen too many examples that sound cool on paper like 'Oh get that guy to sing the hook on that guy's song ' and then that's all it is. It's a cool idea that sounds good on paper.

Lonnie was ahead of his time but at the same time he was right in there with Albert Collins's Cool Sounds.

I have the ability to sing with emotion and feeling but if you say I sound like Billie Holiday that's cool. Let's look at who Billie was: she was this person this singer this beautiful diva who could move the audience with the slightest gesture of her hand.

I put on the Hank Williams and the Patsy Cline and the Rosemary Clooney on vinyl - I'm not trying to be some cool indie-rock person I just love the way it sounds - and throw on a T-shirt and jeans. In Texas we practically come out of the womb in jeans.

At first I was queasy I'll never forget the sound of the scalpel cutting a body open. But it was so cool trying to work out how these people died.

Music is about communication... it isn't just something that maybe physically sounds good or orally sounds interesting it's something far far deeper than that.

It sounds so trite but in relationships you have to communicate.

I take sounds and change them into words.

It is quite annoying that we have to change the sound we invented just to avoid sounding like people who simply copy us but... it is flattering and of course challenging.

Since September 11 security has been increased everywhere and we have new IDs to get on to the Fox lot. I drove to the security gate but realized I'd left my ID in my other car. I just broke into that voice - 'Hey man I'm Bart Simpson. Who else sounds like this?' The guard waved me through.

It sounds like something from a Woody Guthrie song but it's true I was raised in a freight car.

I sing in the car if I'm in LA because you're like soundproofed.

Austin sounds a little bit like Aston Martin which is the type of car James Bond would drive.

The year most of my high school friends and I got our driver's permits the coolest thing one could do was stand outside after school and twirl one's car keys like a lifeguard whistle. That jingling sound meant freedom and power.

Every night half an hour before curtain up the bells of St. Malachy's the Actors' Chapel on New York's 49th Street peal the tune of 'There's No Business Like Show Business.' If you walk the streets of the theatre district before a show and see the vast enthusiastic lines it sounds like a calling: there is certainly no place like Broadway.

The people who are competing business-wise out there want what other successful labels and artists have. I don't want what they have I want my own path my own sound my own identity. Record labels care nothing about identity or artistic freedom they want good business.

Politicians also have a love affair with the 'small business exemption.' Too much paperwork? Too heavy a burden? Not enough time? Just exempt small businesses from the rule. It sounds so pro-growth. Instead it's an admission that the costs of a regulation just can't be justified.

It's not hard to get your way when it's your way or the highway. People either follow suit or they're not around. I don't really like the sound of that 'cause that sounds like a temper tantrum. I'm just very black and white when it comes to my business. There's really no gray area.

Follow sound business trends not fashion trends.

Really I have to laugh because there was a whole set of stories that made me sound like the Dragon Lady you know 'tough this and tough that.' Then there is this business about 'gooey.' The bottom line is I am a pragmatic idealist.

Presents don't really mean much to me. I don't want to sound mawkish but - it was the realization that I have a great many people in my life who really love me and who I really love.

Speaking of Twitter I don't even know if I composed a blog entry in 2009 as I was too busy parceling my every thought into cute 140-character sound bites. I used to only worry about being pithy for a living now some of my best lines are wasted on a free app!

A lot of the fun lies in trying to penetrate the mystery and this is best done by saying over the lines to yourself again and again till they pass through the stage of sounding like nonsense and finally return to a full sense that had at first escaped notice.