The older I get the more laid back I am about whatever happens, happens.

I was born with great eyelashes. They just do what I want them to do.

What I've learned and all of us have learned is: You can't force art, and there's no way you could force somebody to do something that they didn't want to do in this line of work.

Costumes are great. That kind of effort tells the audience that the performer has taken the time to be the total package.

You've got to live your life first and do your job second.

We started to overthink things in the Dixie Chicks and do things we thought people wanted us to do.

When I look back at some of the Chicks stuff, it's the early stuff we did where we kind of giggle and go, 'You know what? Those were the good old days.'

I couldn't imagine that my career could have contributed to the demise of my marriage, but I do think neither of us realized that when you spend 60 to 70 days a year face-to-face, no marriage is going to survive. No relationship is going to survive.

We've had a lot of controversy in our career, and it's never been intentional.

When we were unknown, you don't get a lot of bad feedback. Now, we get people bad-mouthing us all the time, but it's all part of the game.

We have an older sister who gets pregnant easily. So Emily and I think there may be an environmental cause for our problems. Neither of us were very old when we started trying. But we've lived very parallel lives. We've been in a band together since I was 12 and she was 10. We can't help but wonder, did we stay in a hotel near a power plant?

I am a really passive person to begin with so I have written a lot of pretty crappy songs with strangers because I let it go in a direction that I didn't feel it should have and I didn't know them well enough to speak up.

I feel like Court Yard Hounds keeps us idling. I think Emily and I function better when we're continually making music and playing, and this is a way to keep doing that.

Songwriting is such a personal thing and it's hard to be in a room with somebody you don't know and trust.

I play a little acoustic bass and a little guitar. In our house there are instruments everywhere, and I love picking them up and just noodling around. I pick up my husband's tin whistle sometimes. He's really proficient, but it's about the second most annoying instrument - after the banjo - if you don't know how to play it.

I'll be very content if I never play 'Devil Went Down to Georgia' again.

My closet CD that I don't admit that I really listen to is Celine Dion. My husband's sister passed away in a car accident, and she was a huge Celine Dion fan. 'It's All Coming Back to Me Now' was her favorite song, so that's kind of my guilty pleasure.

I'm such a worrier.

At the Grammys, how many performances were with women playing instruments? Is it still surprising that a female can play an instrument proficiently?

I'm such an introvert.

I'm amazed when I hear my daughters with their friends. They'll just talk openly about, 'Yeah, he used to be a girl and now he's a boy.' It gives me a lot of hope... It's so matters of fact. It's like they're saying blue and yellow make green. I love that.

We spent three years of active trying before we went to IVF. First I went on Clomid. Then I had some dye tests and found I had a collapsed tube, so I had laparoscopic surgery; the tube wasn't blocked, just spasming.

I really have aproblem with the fact that insurance companies don't see infertility as a medical condition requiring coverage. I do want there to be some pressure on the insurance companies.

It's such a strong drive for women, knowing you were meant to be a mom. We would have gone into debt, done whatever, exhausted all the options, to get there. But a lot of women have to give up on that dream because they can't afford it.

I love the tone of old, non-amplified, real acoustic fiddles, and Wood Violins are the closest thing I have found to that sound. They play beautifully!

I think people in the public eye have a problem - they can have security issues.

You know, I think it's something I want to teach my children, to ask questions and not be afraid to disagree with people in power. Always question, scrutinize everything they do, because they are leading the country, and it's important to me. That is patriotic.

I just was raised always to question and be as informed as I can be.

I used to be a big 'Star Search' fan. I think it's great people who have a music dream have a place to showcase their talent.

Any time the Chicks want to play, that takes precedence, because we can make a lot of money.

Nobody has one band anymore. They've got two and three and four!

In the beginning, if you look at those early label albums of the Chicks, we didn't write all that much. We had an A&R person and they were getting songs from publishers, listening to hours and hours of cassette tapes.

It's not like we were setting out to make a political statement - we're just a band with opinions.

We have to make a living and you can't do that playing bluegrass.

SXSW is all about the music and the collaboration.

Especially after the Chicks' success, it's hard to think of starting over.

We've played music all our lives.

The Court Yard Hounds aren't a threat to the Dixie Chicks.

We love performing, we love touring.

I would never go on 'Dancing With the Stars,' because I'm not the greatest dancer in the world. But when I watch 'The Apprentice' sometimes I'm like, 'I could do that task.' The only reason I would not do that is that I could never call people for money and on that show you have to be willing to call people for money.

I didn't realize how polarized an industry like music can be.

We grew up in the South, but in a very liberal household - both our parents are from the Northeast.

I was just oblivious to the fact that the country scene was socially backward and politically opposite of everything I am.

So many young kids are fickle when it comes to music. There comes a time when you're not cool again.

We're just trying to make good music.

You get your time in the limelight but you don't know how long it's going to last. It's great, but you have to put up with a lot.

We do appreciate that we have a very conservative audience and we do try to walk the fine line of that and not offend anybody.

Fifteen-year-old LeAnn Rimes singing about commitment? You want to go, 'Yeah, right.'

You can't just keep bottling the same thing over and over again and think the audience isn't going to catch on.

While we were promoting 'Wide Open Spaces,' we set aside time to write. We went on several writing retreats where nobody could get hold of us. It was the only way we could take a step back and reflect and write and be living a semi-normal life for a while.