To be a mother you must be strong. Even if you don't feel it, you have to pretend.

I just aspire to pick people up. That's my ambition.

I'm uneasy with fame so I do my best to avoid places that will bring me more attention.

I'm not anti-fashion, but I've always had a bit of a punk attitude. That's important, I think. I do my own thing.

I always said that if I could just find a guy who could chop wood and had a nice smile, it wouldn't bother me if he was a thug or an aristocrat, as long as he was a good guy. And I've ended up with an educated thug.

I have no technical training and am completely uneducated in music.

I think you only really feel like an outsider if you've been an insider.

My musical career was an accident.

I'm not over the top; I'm not wacky. I'm fairly understated, and that reflects in the way I sing.

People generally let me be me. People are aware that I'm not someone particularly begging for attention. They hold back a bit with me.

I'm not shy or reclusive. I just spend my time with people rather than journalists.

Whatever I'm doing, I'm in that moment and I'm doing it. The rest of the world's lost. If I'm cooking some food or making soup, I want it to be lovely. If not, what's the point of doing it?

All the cliches of glamorous sophistication have little appeal to me. Do I want to live the British version of 'Dynasty?' No thanks!

The anxiety I feel when I'm late is nothing like the anxiety I feel when I'm on time.

When I go into the studio, I completely detach. I let my emotions come out.

I don't get easily bored. I'm not that kind of person.

London was a really multi-racial city ... It's incredible how comfortable people are with race there.

Once a song's out there, it's no longer mine. And that's the whole purpose of music: to belong to people.

I am fairly classless because it is very difficult to class someone who comes from a mixed marriage.

I can't see myself just endlessly singing the same songs over and over again.

There isn't a class structure in Nigeria; there's a tribal structure and prestige as far as money is concerned.

If you're only making an album every 10 years, it better be good.

I've got absolutely no real perception, properly, of time.

When I was young, people were almost identified solely by the kind of music they liked. People fell into categories of who liked what.

I am a reluctant celebrity, in some ways.

People are so used to having their lives filmed, they're not even conscious of having cameras around. I still have that sort of suspicion when a camera comes out. I view it as a thing to fear.

From being at art college, I've always hated people that have the gall to think that they're being incredibly different when they're doing something in a very acceptable way, something safe that they've seen someone else doing.

I've never associated myself with other singers, certainly not female singers.

I look a lot like my father and his mother.

When you play arenas you can create whatever you want. At a theater the height of the stage and the limitations of the theater can make you feel more separate from the audience.

I'm always late.

My father was a very difficult man.

I love writing songs.

I always see myself as much more of a musician than a celebrity.

Most of my lyrics are little stories about my experiences or those of my friends