It was tough being a single mom. It was tough being in a divorce with children. Very, very hard.
— Melissa Etheridge
I'm exploring the maturity, the wisdom that just comes from having gone around the sun 50 times. My experience is, 'Oh, I'm never really going to get it right. I'm never going to get it done. But that's not the point here.' The point is the journey.
I'm very fortunate that I have a wonderful family around me and loved ones.
I can be a rock star with a television show and still have a self-esteem problem. So it's nice to have your dad go, 'Hey Melissa, I'm proud of you - you're doing good.'
I'm for gay marriage, because I'm for gay divorce.
Once I overcame breast cancer, I wasn't afraid of anything anymore.
Christmas comes during a season when the Earth is in its darkest time. It's a holiday for the family and for everyone.
My ultimate joy and happiness is being a wife and mother.
All men, and women, and everything in between are created equal.
When I grew up, there were no songs about gay people.
When you realize that we're the spirit that's in our bodies and our bodies are like the vehicles that take us around, you realize that you have to take care of that body.
I'm one of those people that will say, 'My cancer was a gift.'
What people don't get is that hair is such a big part of our identity.
I would never say I had a bad childhood at all.
Laughing is a medicine. It releases this amazing stuff.
Your own personal health is your own personal choice, all the way down the line.
We all want to judge; it's an intrinsic part of our society and human nature. I'm not surprised that talent shows are hits, but I'm glad some of them aren't so brutal.
Life happens, and I write about it wherever I am.
There's a point when your tape of life runs off the reel and there's this stillness of your own - I got to know myself.
I've worked since I was 11 years old, playing music and following the dream, and shaking and moving and doing it. And then, you have cancer and it was like 'Ooooohh.' It was like a big eraser. It was the only thing in my life that had ever made me just stop.
What I do believe in is other worlds and spirits. There is some other power in control - levels of energy that perhaps we don't see.
Our society, where we are right now, our minds are junkyards. We watch TV and sit on the computer all day and barely have an original thought.
When you grow up in one town and your life revolves around it, you are very aware of any darkness on the edge of town. That's because it's scary and it's inviting.
I think being a parent is knowing how to love. Sometimes love is discipline, sometimes it's humor, sometimes it's listening.
There is no fear when you choose love. The more you choose love, the more love is in your life. It gets easier and easier.
Gay people are born everyday. You will never legislate that away.
Weight isn't a factor in nutritional health.
Video is a funny thing. It's one thing to be an artist, singer-songwriter, and use words and create pictures in people's minds. And then be asked to do video for it, to actually give a certain visual for your song.
I don't have a bucket list because it is my dedication to live every day of my life there. I don't have a bucket list because I'm doing it that day. I don't want to go to bed and say, 'Oh, I wish I had done this.'
Cancer's like the ultimate excuse. Who's gonna say, 'Oh, no, you have to show up for this one?' 'Hey, I got cancer. I can't be there.' It's the ultimate eraser.
The subject and the reality of having children came at the height of my career.
Chemotherapy tests your sanity.
In country music, there are certain female artists, like Gretchen Wilson, where you're going to find lesbians because they're responding to that more aggressive side.
My kids and I love to listen to Bill Cosby.
I have always loved Broadway.
I always tell people I'm grateful for my cancer diagnosis because it was the greatest gift because it completely changed my life. I was able to stop and let my whole life and world just crash over me like a wave. And I stood there and went, 'Wow.' And for the first time, I stopped everything. I had to.
I tell people that anything that could ever happen to you on stage has happened to me. My clothes have fallen off. I've fallen off the stage. I've gotten sick - anything.
I'm not one for big public displays of affection, anyway. Straight, gay, whatever.
I adopted a healthier diet. I take at least a tablespoon of apple-cider vinegar a day. It's an old wives' tale, but it really is one of the best things you can put in your mouth.
On the road, as a 'rock star,' there's superficial attention and adulation is thrown at you for a couple of hours - then you're alone in your room and it's lonely.
I don't think anyone masters parenthood.
My wife works harder than anyone else with the children around the house. I make the money, sure, but she does everything else.
I have a very strong opinions about health and our responsibility to our own health, and I will always say what I feel.
I have days when I say, 'I'm going to have five chocolate chip cookies today.' I'll have a salad every day but every week I have a cheat day.
People ask me, 'Is being a parent the be-all, end-all?' And I say, 'Oh, it definitely is up to the person, and it is difficult, it can be very difficult, and it can be extremely healing.' That's what I have found, that the children are mirrors. Everyone is a mirror, but children especially because they're day and night and all day long.
I can look at cancer as a disease that picks me out and 'why me,' or I can look at it through love and say, 'This is a wake-up call. This is my body telling me: 'Hey, you're out of balance here. It's time to get in line with yourself.'
I think I've been on a path ever since I was born, a path of high stress. I put myself, my career, it was a big old juicy carrot right in front of me for all of my life.
Realizing I was gay was a long sort of waking up.
My belief is that cancer comes from inside you and so much of it has to do with the environment of your body. It's the stress that will turn that gene on or not.
I believed in Obama for social issues. I believe he brought our nation together and healed our racial divide. Martin Luther King's dream came true when he was elected. That's huge.
