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Be true. Be as true and honest with yourself as you can and then you've just got to let it go from there out into the universe. Whatever happens after that, I have no control of, but I do have control of what I'm willing to put out there.

Be authentic, be true, sing what's in your heart.

Loss and heartbreak are pretty universal.

When you're home or you're working, your mind just isn't allowed to just roll on like it does when you're watching the scenery go by. You're hurdling through space but you're not really moving. ...It's that dreaminess, that ability to just get dreamy while you're looking out the window and you see something...and it makes you think of something else, and all of a sudden the words are just flowing out of you.

Take the high road, that's my approach.

But you know, I really like to present the songs on an album as a story, as something thematic, rather than something you'd put on a random shuffle.

Right now in my middle years, I'm getting to enjoy a resurgence of my own creativity, which I'm fully embracing and enjoying.

But I like the small places myself. I mean, you know you can really feel it, and for me the music just goes really well in the smaller places.

I came into my own, you might say, in terms of putting out my first record quite late in life. And yet there's some authors and photographers and even probably recording artists that didn't really hit their stride until their mid-50s.

In the immediate aftermath of the separation I just wrote and wrote and wrote. And wrote and wrote and wrote. Thank God I had that as an outlet.

Loss and heartbreak are pretty universal.

Be authentic, be true, sing what's in your heart.

But I like the small places myself. I mean, you know you can really feel it, and for me the music just goes really well in the smaller places.

I was on my own for a long time before I married Neil, and now I'm on my own again. I've kind of gotten over the separation and divorce. I'm capable. I can do this.

You know, when you break it down, 'Broken Vows' is, if anything, more about my parents divorce. And 'Starting Over' was written after I went to a funeral.

I came into my own, you might say, in terms of putting out my first record quite late in life. And yet there's some authors and photographers and even probably recording artists that didn't really hit their stride until their mid-50s.

I'm certainly not the only person to have gone through a divorce. I'm not the only person who's had heartbreak.

It's not about making it perfect, it's about letting it be real, sometimes raw and flawed, as long as it's true.

Take the high road, that's my approach.

I had to figure out at 61 years of age: 'Holy moly! Who am I?'

In the immediate aftermath of the separation I just wrote and wrote and wrote. And wrote and wrote and wrote. Thank God I had that as an outlet.

But you know, I really like to present the songs on an album as a story, as something thematic, rather than something you'd put on a random shuffle.

You want to have a song that people will listen to and go, 'Oh, yeah! That reminds me of something in my life,' or, 'something I'm currently going through,' or maybe something happens later and you hear the song and go, 'Wow! That really was telling a story that I can relate to now.' That's my hope.

I am lucky in that my children are grown, my youngest is twenty-seven. I didn't have the conflict between artist and mother while they were young because I really focused in, very much, on the mothering aspect.

If you're in a painful place, be there, feel it, but don't stay stuck there. Do what you've got to do to get out of there. And if you're in a really joyful place, believe that that's not going to last either.

There's always something that happens where I go, 'Oh, that was so awkward!'

When you're home or you're working, your mind just isn't allowed to just roll on like it does when you're watching the scenery go by. You're hurdling through space but you're not really moving. ...It's that dreaminess, that ability to just get dreamy while you're looking out the window and you see something...and it makes you think of something else, and all of a sudden the words are just flowing out of you.

Just accepting that vulnerability is part of the deal, I think, makes that part okay.

Right now in my middle years, I'm getting to enjoy a resurgence of my own creativity, which I'm fully embracing and enjoying.

All things must end, and they do! You're only stuck in a place if you choose to stay stuck there.

Be true. Be as true and honest with yourself as you can and then you've just got to let it go from there out into the universe. Whatever happens after that, I have no control of, but I do have control of what I'm willing to put out there.