I like to try new things.

For better or worse, I've always been curious musically. Whether it's opera or Judy Garland or pop, I've deliberately sought those things out. I've never wanted to do the same things over and over. Some think I've accomplished what I set out to do, and others consider me a dilettante.

I definitely consider 'Poses' - the whole album in fact - to be kind of a miracle. Like the last breath of that moment when decadence is healthy, 'Poses' encapsulates that feeling. It's a kind of song and a kind of album that I'll never be able to repeat.

Writing an opera and premiering in England, you could say I was going right into the eye of the storm and I came out successfully. A little tattered and bruised, but so what, I made it.

I made the decision to take on board the critical feedback. Reviews are something you can easily ignore as a performer or writer but I chose to not ignore them here and I think that I benefited. I think I'm stronger for it - and I have a tougher skin as a result.

My parents were serious working musicians, but they were not stars - not like pop stars that you have now. They had to make a living and that meant touring, working hard, going on the road - and we were roped in.

To me, songs come of their own volition - and with an open-ended philosophy.

Every video I do is over budget by the time I walk on set. I am massively extravagant in my personal habits.

I have earned hundreds of thousands of pounds, but I can't seem to get to grips with money.

I very much faced my mother's death with hard, arduous and time-consuming labor. The more I would do, the less I would feel.

In retrospect, I'm really shocked at how far I put my heart out there on the line with 'Prima Donna'. I seem to have this knack for being able to accomplish that.

I wish I could just relax sometimes and make some money, but I always feel like I have to prove some kind of big, profound point.

I definitely try to broaden the scope of music. I don't know if it's pop or classical or what, but I'm religiously challenging myself all the time, for better or for worse.

I am under no illusion that I will ever be the greatest opera composer in the world, with Wagner and Verdi and Strauss before me. I think my work could fit very nicely into musicals, though.

After years of hotels, I'm horribly inept at cleaning up after myself.

I've always gravitated towards opera, and the Royal Opera House is quite possibly the greatest opera house on earth.

When I'm in the classical world, I really treat it as exactly classical and I don't try and spruce it up or jazz it up or make it easier for the masses.

Unless I have my aunt or my boyfriend to take care of me, I'm a little pathetic.

One of the main destructive forces within our family has been these runaway egos. I think if you look at any show business family, that struggle exists.

I like to sing to Verdi, I like singing to Sibelius, and Mahler maybe.

I'm not born again, I'm not Kabbalah, God forbid, but I did have an experience hitting 30 that I needed to lean on something that assured me that everything is going to be okay. I had to regain a lot of my belief in fairy tales, in happy endings.

I've paid the price; I definitely have a reputation that precedes me, and there is a camp that plots my demise. But then again... it's funner that way.

The thing I hate most is false modesty. The artists who are, like, 'Oh, you know, I'm really not that good. Oh, I can't believe I'm here.' I find it vaguely sinister, even.

I think everybody identified at a pretty young age that I was fairly entranced with myself. And that I had to be tempered.