I like to tinkle at my piano when I'm working out a new song - I just put my fingers down and see what comes out.

I think women were just accepted more as songwriters when they sat on a stool with a guitar and had scruffy hair. It was quite insulting really, because it was like saying that if you're pretty and slim and glamorous there's no way anything could be going on between your ears, you just like doing your makeup.

The Manchester music scene was very male dominated.

That's a part of human nature that men and women, women and women, whatever your sexuality, you flirt with each other and it's completely harmless and it doesn't really mean it crosses a line... You can tell where it is.

I was fortunate enough to meet Aretha Franklin but I was so overwhelmed that I just burst out crying.

I've always said that when people start saying, 'Oh my God, why doesn't this woman put down her bagpipes?' then I will. I just don't ever want to become like Cliff Richard.

We were working class, but my mother stopped working at the mill when she married my father and he went on to become an electrical engineer and later a draughtsman. So although we were never rich he was bringing in enough money to be able to splash out occasionally.

Working class people vote Tory because they think it makes them look a bit posh.

I was happy to carry on without children because I was completely immersed in my work and my career. I only heard the clock ticking in my late 30s, and when my mother Marion died the year I turned 40 it hit me with such a force that we ended up having IVF, which turned out to be unsuccessful.

She used to drive me to clubs for engagements and when I was 16 I got a job presenting a TV show in Newcastle. My mum didn't really like driving, but she carried on. Once I remember we got stuck in a snow storm, but she carried on to get me there in time. She was an amazing, incredible person.

People compliment me and if I ignore them, it doesn't mean I'm rude. It just means I'm embarrassed.

Because everyone has love or wants love there are always problems. And if you don't have problems, you're probably leading a boring life.

When all my friends were into punk, I'd be singing versions of soul ballads. I thought, 'Oh my God, I don't want them to know I'm doing this.' But I really enjoyed singing those songs.

I suppose you have to be careful what you sing, because you might have to do it.

I'm a bit of a loose cannon, but it keeps everyone on their toes!

I did work incredibly hard but I think there's a certain element of luck.

I do really good banana bread. And I make a chocolate cake with fudge icing that's bloody delicious.

I don't really think of myself so much as a writer as a stylist, someone who came into writing from the back door and has found it through a certain very specific and personal means.

My center is not really my singing so much as my guitar playing.

If you talk about the 'Tango in the Night' album, the reason I didn't do that tour was because the album took about 10 months, and it was such an uncreative atmosphere.

Certainly, whatever I learn while I'm out solo, I bring back to Fleetwood Mac.

I've been playing since I was about 7. I never really used a pick very much. I mean, once in a while, if you're in a festive mood, you might draw a little blood, but nothing significant... But my hands aren't abused, really.

My foundation is acoustic guitar, and it is finger-picking and all of that and sort of an orchestral style of playing. Lead guitar came later, more out of the necessity to do so because of expectations in a particular situation.

I don't read music. I've never had a lesson. I don't know anything about music other than what my inner knowledge is.