Musician

People ask me so many questions.

There's a lot of women's organisations, but they're all working separately. If you get people together, as a collaborative voice, it's strong.

When you're that successful, things have a momentum, and at a certain point you can't really tell whether you have created the momentum or it's creating you.

I've thought about what is an alternative word to feminism. There isn't one. It's a perfectly good word. And it can't be changed.

I've never been a social person.

Nelson Mandela is awe inspiring - a person who really sacrificed for what he believed in. I feel truly humbled by him.

Motherhood was the great equaliser for me; I started to identify with everybody... as a mother, you have that impulse to wish that no child should ever be hurt, or abused, or go hungry, or not have opportunities in life.

I can't understand why the front pages of newspapers can cover bird flu and swine flu and everybody is up in arms about that and we still haven't really woken up to the fact that so many women in sub-Saharan Africa - 60 percent of people in - infected with HIV are women.

I watch 'Mad Men,' I knit scarves, I cook and am very, very normal. Honestly.

I understand what it is for a woman to want to protect their children and give them the best they can.

Although I have lived in London, I have never really considered London my home because it was always going to be a stopping-off point for me, and it has been too.

It's a very telling thing when you have children. You have to be there for them, you've got to set an example, when you're not sure what your example is, and anyway the world is changing so fast you don't know what is appropriate anymore.

The general population still thinks HIV is something that came in the 80s and went away, or that it only affects the gay population or intravenous drug users.

You wouldn't find a Joni Mitchell on 'X Factor;' that's not the place. 'X Factor' is a specific thing for people that want to go through that process - it's a factory, you know, and it's owned and stitched-up by puppet masters.

I'm a female but I have a masculine side and I'm not going to negate that part of myself.

I think Scotland could take a stand in a wonderful way, ecologically and morally and ethically.

I wouldn't say that I've mellowed. I'm less mellow, perhaps.

In a sense, the music business and I haven't always been the best of bedfellows. Artists often have to fight their corner. Your music goes through these filters of record labels and media, and you're hoping you'll find someone who'll help you get your work into the world.

I'm from a working-class background, and I've experienced that worry of not having a job next week because the unions are going on strike.

If people like your music, you can't guarantee they're going to love you.