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When I hear someone, instantaneously, I'm like, 'Who's singing?' You're giving people so much of yourself, and my voice is the most natural, distinctive tool I have. It's up to me to express myself on a wider scale than just writing vocal melodies and lyrics.

Most of all, I like to sing my heart out to lyrics that really speak to people.

My advice to singers is always the same: 'Don't sing the song, sing the lyric.'

The way I teach people to sing... I have them talk the lyric out until it sounds like something they really believe, like an actor with a monologue.

When I sing a tune, the lyrics are important to me. Most of the standard lyrics I know well. And as soon as I hear an arrangement, I get ideas, kind of like blowing a horn. I guess I never sing a tune the same way twice.

There is an actor's responsibility in presenting the emotional content of the lyrics to an audience. But whether you do that in a straightforward fashion or an ironic fashion or a blase fashion is all about opportunities, and singers are missing opportunities as artists if they don't pay attention to the lyric.

You can sometimes get your own feelings across more strongly if you pretend that you're singing it from someone else's angle. But it's always from me. It's just a new way of framing it.

In some ways, I've always approached singing as acting, and the voice is just like a way of carrying the song.

What I say is from my heart. You must be sincere. So when I sing a song, people are supposed to feel it.