“I come from a line of great Sicilian women, and their mentality is to ...” — Cyndi Lauper Quote

I come from a line of great Sicilian women, and their mentality is to endure and push through to the other side.

I learned jazz; that comes from blues. I learned rock; that comes from blues. I learned pop; that comes from blues. Even dance, that comes from blues, with the answer-and-response.

I always sang. I wanted to be in a band with my sister, and I was, at 11. At 12, I started writing seriously, and that was my pacifier all through high school - that and painting.

What, do you think that feminism means you hate men?

I lucked out when I started to sing. I'd already experienced failing at everything else.

I learned from the example of my father that the manner in which one endures what must be endured is more important than the thing that must be endured.

One of the things that happens to everyone who is grief-stricken, who has lost someone, is there comes a time when everyone else just wants you to get over it, but of course you don't get over it. You get stronger; you try and live on; you endure; you change; but you don't get over it. You carry it with you.

We want to show the world Haiti can endure.

What the church is really concerned about is what endures.

Take to every Gallon of Honey, three Gallons of water, and put them both together, and set them over so soft a fire, that you may endure to melt and break the honey with your hands.