I was perceiving myself as good as a man or equal to a man and as powerful and I wanted to look ambiguous because I thought that was a very interesting statement to make through the media. And it certainly did cause quite a few ripples and interest and shock waves.

A lot of music you might listen to is pretty vapid, it doesn't always deal with our deeper issues. These are the things I'm interested in now, particularly at my age.

I mean, I'm 48 years old and I've been through a lot in my life - you know, loss, whether it be death, illness, separation. I mean, the failed expectations... We all have dreams.

I want to branch out. I want to write. I write poetry. I want to see my children grow up well.

I would say that although my music may be or may have been part of the cultural background fabric of the gay community, I consider myself an outsider who belongs everywhere and nowhere... Being a human being is what truly counts. That's where you'll find me.

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.

Music is an extraordinary vehicle for expressing emotion - very powerful emotions. That's what draws millions of people towards it. And, um, I found myself always going for these darker places and - people identify with that.

Over the years, I was never really driven to become a solo artist, but I was curious to find out who I was as an individual creative person. It's taken some time, but now I feel I've truly paid my dues. I guess I'm at a point now where I'm more comfortable in my own skin.

The future hasn't happened yet and the past is gone. So I think the only moment we have is right here and now, and I try to make the best of those moments, the moments that I'm in.

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.

Dying is easy, it's living that scares me to death.

There are two kinds of artists left: those who endorse Pepsi and those who simply won't.

Ask yourself: Have you been kind today? Make kindness your daily modus operandi and change your world.

Whatever you do, you do out of a passion.

Those in the developing world have so few rights - we take a lot for granted in the developed world.

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

I have always felt a little homeless. It's a strange thing.

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.

I see myself as a traveller.

When you go to Africa, and you see children, they're usually barefoot, dirty and in rags, and they'd love to go to school.

I was never much of a one to win prizes... and certainly never placed too much value on their acquisition.

The world is a heartbreaking place, without any question.

I'm just an ordinary person.

I don't have clear-cut positions. I get baffled by things. I have viewpoints. Sometimes they change.

I didn't want to be perceived as a girly girl on stage.

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.

HIV/AIDS has no boundaries.

I want people to start thinking about what it means to be HIV-positive and to ask questions about that.

People ask me so many questions.

I've had my share of dark days of the soul. I try not to focus on it too much so it doesn't get to me.

Most women are dissatisfied with their appearance - it's the stuff that fuels the beauty and fashion industries.

I would love to meet a dodo.

I'm not particularly attention-seeking.

I love to make music and stay grounded.

One wouldn't want to have the same dilemmas at 50 as one had at 15. And indeed I don't. I have a very different take on life.

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

I have different hats; I'm a mother, I'm a woman, I'm a human being, I'm an artist and hopefully I'm an advocate. All of those plates are things I spin all the time.

I only want to make music because I have a passion for it.

Money is a good thing and it's obviously useful, but to work only for money or fame would never interest me.

Feminism is a word that I identify with. The term has become synonymous with vitriolic man-hating but it needs to come back to a place where both men and women can embrace it. It is particularly important for women in developing countries.

Women's issues have always been a part of my life.

I think people in Great Britain are a bit jaded sometimes.

When I look at the majority of my own songs they really came from my own sense of personal confusion or need to express some pain or beauty - they were coming from a universal and personal place.

I think music is the most phenomenal platform for intellectual thought.

I've never experienced chronic poverty, but I know what it's like to live on £3 a week.

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.

I've never been a social person.

I don't want to be owned by a corporation and obliged to make a certain type of album. I want to be free.

I want people to understand me as a person with views, not just performing songs.

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