Mama was my greatest teacher, a teacher of compassion, love and fearlessness. If love is sweet as a flower, then my mother is that sweet flower of love.

I think tolerance and acceptance and love is something that feeds every community.

My mother would kill me if I posed nude! My mother raised me with certain standards.

In fact, my courage and my bravery at a young age was the thing I was bullied for, a kind of 'Who do you think you are?'

Compassion is a muscle that gets stronger with use.

I have always felt compassion for the planet. Sometimes I just start to get emotional. I cry because I can almost feel the pain in the air. I put it in words, and in song, and in dance, I think that is what artistry is.