“I feel quite fearless protecting the people I love.”

I just really want to make albums – and however I can, I will.

I’d say that, first and foremost, I’m a performer; I started performing when I was four years old, and being on stage from a young age set me up.

Curvy is something to be proud of.

It’s tragic that you can define a whole movement in music by gender alone. People are like, ‘Oh, look, another quirky girl.’

I really hate bureaucracy and the idea that I’m not a free person.

I think soul is soul. I don’t see new soul as any different to old soul.

I agree with cosmetic surgery for medical reasons – my mother had breast cancer and I think it’s very sad when somebody has no choice in what happens to their body.

I dread the idea of a paparazzi snapping me while I’m out running.

It’s celebrated in British culture to be eccentric.

Sometimes people fear the truth. They’d rather not speak to you than know what you really think.

I love going to the cinema. Whenever I get time off, that’s where I go.

There’s nothing wrong with a thick eyebrow; Frida Kahlo had them.

I’m under no illusion that there are things about me that I’d like to change. I just accept who I am, and I’m proud of it.

All creative people have to have vulnerability because those nuances are what move people. So I’m deeply insecure – but I’m good at hiding it.

I try to stick to a certain diet all the time, and then when I feel like a reward, I have it. I try to stick to no dairy, no sugar, no wheat.

I’m not a pop act, churning stuff out really quickly. I find the music that arises from that style of working is distracted, not particularly profound.

I rarely know exactly what I want to do, but always know exactly how I want it to make me feel. Feeling always leads the sound!

I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery – air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, This is what it is to be happy.

Your feelings so are important to write down, to capture, and to remember because today you’re heartbroken, but tomorrow you’ll be in love again.

A painter paints to unload himself of feelings and visions.

It’s all about attitude and feeling good about yourself and not looking like everybody on TV. You do not have to be small; you can have some junk in your trunk.

Human beings are not creatures of logic; we are creatures of emotion. And we do not care what’s true. We care how it feels.

If a man can be properly said to love something, it must be clear that he feels affection for it as a whole, and does not love part of it to the exclusion of the rest.

Sometimes I feel like rap music is almost the key to stopping racism.