I think probably the only thing that is around in these songs is that I was really lonely when I wrote a lot of them. But it was really by my own choosing because I was devoting myself to songwriting and dancing and I wasn't really going out and seeing people.

Thanks to everyone who's encouraged and supported my work over the years.

I don't get out to parties often.

If I could make albums quicker, I'd be on a roll wouldn't I? Everything just seems to take so much time. I don't know why. Time... evaporates.

There's always ideas buzzing around, but it's whether they actually end up materialising into a song.

If you believe in what you do and you really want to be in music, just stick at it. It's always a learning process. Enjoy it because I think making music is a privilege, really. In an ideal world, it should also always be fun. As much as possible, make it fun.

For the last 12 years, I've felt really privileged to be living such a normal life. It's so a part of who I am.

One of the main reasons for wanting to perform live again was to have contact with that audience.

I am just a quiet reclusive person who has managed to hang around for a while.

I guess what all artists want is for their work to touch someone or for it to be thought provoking.

I had an incredibly full life with my imagination: I used to have all sorts of trolls and things; I had a wonderful world around my toys and invented people. I don't mean I had imaginary friends; I just had this big imagination thing going on. I didn't need any imaginary friends, because I had so much other stuff going on.

I suppose I do think I go out of my way to be a very normal person, and I just find it frustrating that people think that I'm some kind of weirdo reclusive that never comes out into the world.

I love being a mother. I think it's the best thing I've ever done, and I personally feel that it's had a very positive effect on my work. I think it's an encouraging force for creativity, it feeds creativity - it did for me, certainly.

In a popular medium, you're going to get loads of stuff that is trite, but there'll also be some really special moments.

I think it's almost a law of nature that there are only certain things that hit an emotive space, and that's what was always special for me about music: it made me feel something.

What I've tended to do is to use my own experiences to get into someone else's mind, like in Wuthering Heights.

I was aware of a lot of my friends being into things I wasn't into. Like sarcasm. It had never been a part of my family - they still don't use sarcasm.

As we become this one global culture, in some ways it's things like the weather and nature that still hold our culture as unique to where we are.

Gene Wilder is so funny.

People ask what I really did in the three years between 'The Dreaming' and 'Hounds of Love.' I spent it with my family, living a normal home life.

The great thing about vinyl is that if you wanted to get a decent-sounding cut, you could really only have 20 minutes max on each side.

People said I couldn't gig, and I proved them wrong.

I don't listen to my old stuff very often at all.

I am just trying to be a good, protective mother. I want to give Bertie as normal a childhood as possible while preserving his privacy.