Everyone has a self-destructive nature in them. It's whether you feed it or not. You don't have to be a pop star to feel connected to destruction or self-destruction. But self-destruction is self-obsession, and self-obsession is not really possible if you're engaged in raising children. And if you have a spiritual life, you're constantly being asked to see yourself as one small fragment in the bigger picture.
I love being a mother. My children fill me up in many ways, and inspire me in many ways, but I need a partner in my life and I think most people feel that way.
All the criticism is ultimately a blessing in disguise. Because now people know about Malawi [due to the child adoption]. And now people know about the orphans there. And hopefully it's gonna turn around. And a positive is gonna come out of the negative.
Who is my role model and how long can I keep this going? I just move around and do different things and come back to music, try making films and come back to music, write children's books and come back to music.
People don't know what Kabbalah is, and so they jump to conclusions. For me, studying Kabbalah is studying - is just - is asking questions. And I encourage all of my children to be that way, and I think people don't understand that. And so they make assumptions and they judge.
Having children made me go down a road of serious introspection and self-examination. I think it's informed and hopefully enhanced my creativity.
I'm constantly exploring spirituality, sexuality, different aspects of love, whether it's romantic love or the love you have for your children. And love can be as devastating and destructive as it can be rejuvenating and life-giving. I guess I try to capture all of that.
It's weird juggling children in a rhinestone outfit.
Children always think they did something wrong when their parents disappear.
When you are raised to believe that anything having to do with sex is forbidden and taboo, then of course that's all you want to know about. That becomes your complete and utter fascination. That is the surest way to interest a child.
I am rich and famous. I have a talented and gorgeous husband and two beautiful children. I could go on.
I go to Malawi twice a year. It's where two of my children were adopted from, and I have a lot of projects there that I go and check up on and children who I look after. It's sort of a commitment that I've made to this country and the hundreds of thousands of children there who have been orphaned by AIDS.
It amazes me when I talk to people in their early 20s and they've never read the classics, things we read as children. When you don't have knowledge and understanding, then fear rises in you.
Obviously, my tastes and my priorities have changed. But I'm still asking the question 'Why?' Just because I'm a mother doesn't mean I'm not still a rebel and that I don't want to go in the face of convention and challenge the system. I never wanted to think in a robotic way, and I don't want my children to think that way, either.
I fear the future I wish for my children is at risk, so I'm taking action. Please join me.
I hadn't been onstage in a while. The last time was pre-children. And before I went on [at Roseland], my kids were backstage, and I thought, This isn't how I usually do it. I've got kids, and I'm thinking, This is weird. It's weird juggling children on your knee while you're in your rhinestone outfit. And I'm thinking, Okay, I'm gonna go out and do a show and I'm gonna be Superwoman! But I'm not really, `cause I'm a mom. It's all very strange.
My heart goes out to the families of innocent children who were killed today in Pakistan!! I do not accept a world where kids are killed for wanting an education! This violence and ignorance has to stop!!!! It starts with all of us treating all human beings with dignity and respect!!
Obviously, I feel a great sense of responsibility being a good parent and raising my children. I don't take that job very lightly. Who they are, what they become and what they contribute to the world is very important to me.
I hope my child will be a good Catholic like me.
I think most children who are adopted ultimately want to meet their biological parents and often do. I think that is an important journey for children who are adopted to go on.
With all the chaos, pain and suffering in the world, the fact that my adoption of a child from who was living in an orphanage, you know, was the number one story for a week in the world. To me, that says more about our inability to focus on the real problems.
Thinking isn't something you think about. It comes naturally. Thinking involves many things. It involves being an observer. It involves analyzing things, taking in what's around you in the world and finding how to make it inspire your work or turn it into a lesson to teach your children; it's paying attention to details. That's what thinking is: processing.
If those civil rights groups are going into those orphanages and offering to look after those children, then they have every right to make a stink about it. But they're not. They're not offering a solution.
