"I am extremely flattered that Governor Pataki has chosen me as the recipient of this tremendous honor," Sarah McLachlan said. "I just feel that the Lilith Fair was a terrific opportunity to create a platform to celebrate so many great women in music today and to get out a really positive message. I have been so fortunate as a musician and I feel that I have a responsibility and a great opportunity to give something back."
On receiving 'Visionary Award' from Governor George Pataki
"I love the way you smile at me, I love the way your hands reach out and hold me near....I believe this is heaven to no one else but me."
"“If you love large, you've got to hurt large. If you've got a lot of light, you've probably got an equal amount of darkness."
"Am I faithful, am I strong, am I good enough to belong? In your reverie a perfect girl?"
"Happiness is like a cloud, if you stare at it long enough, it evaporates."
"Hold on, hold on to yourself, for this is gonna hurt like hell."
"I've learned to trust myself, to listen to truth, to not be afraid of it and to not try and hide it."
"It's an amazing luxury to say I'm 31 years old and I'm gonna take a year off. That's pretty amazing."
"The more we take the less we become, the fortune of one man means less for some."
"The winter here's cold and bitter, it's chilled us to the bone. We haven't seen the sun for weeks, too long too far from home. I feel just like I'm sinking, and I claw for solid ground. I'm pulled down by the undertow, I never thought I could feel so low. Oh darkness I feel like letting go. If all of the strength and all of the courage. Come and lift me from this place. I know I could love you much better than this."
"Time is a beautiful thing. It's like when you meet an old lover on the street six years later and they don't look so ugly anymore."
"I'm so tired, but I can't sleep...standing on the edge of something much too deep...funny how I feel so much but cannot say a word...we are screaming inside, oh, but we can't be heard...so afraid to love you, more afraid to lose...clinging to a past that doesn't let me choose"
"The night is my companion...solitude my guide....and I would be the one to hold you down, kiss you so hard, I'll take your breath away...my body aches to breathe your breath, your words keep me alive."
"If you only try to please others, you're going to resent those people you're trying to please; the ones who are often closest to you. If you choose a path that you yourself want to take, then you're going to be much kinder to the people in your life."
"In the arms of the angel, fly away from here....you are pulled from the wreckage, of your silent reverie, you're in the arms of the angel, may you find some comfort here..."
"Every time I'm close to you, there's too much I can't say and you just walk away... I grieve in my condition for I cannot find the words to say I need you so."
"Sarah McLachlan is not only one of today's most gifted singer-songwriters, she is also a visionary in the music industry," Governor Pataki said. "Like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who penned the Declaration of Sentiments and laid the foundation for womens rights, Sarah McLachlan created a stage to showcase female performers and opened the doors for many up and coming female artists."
Governor George Pataki
"Sarah McLachlan's creation of the Lilith fair gave a generation of female singer-songwriters an opportunity to meet, perform together and, quite possibly, create a female-pop revolution, Sarah's dedication to her music and to the promotion of fellow female artists makes her the epitome of the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Award."
