“A lot of people question my image and why I do what I do, and the answer is because this is how I want to present myself.”

Most of the lyrics are over a year old, and it doesn’t feel like it’s about me. Time created a distance.

I am a very sensitive person, very impulsive and emotional.

I try to imagine how we would live if we didn’t know we were going to die. Would we live our lives differently? Less careful, maybe? Less scared? These are beautiful things to think about and build a song around.

There’s not only emotion in the way you sing but also in what you sing. That way I can compensate it.

The music comes first. When Geoff has made something the inspiration comes automatically. His music is very expressive. But still is is a very difficult process: I have to add something to his music, not push it away. It has to be equal, and I find that very difficult.

The blackness of darkness, forever.

I’ve had a wordless phase, and that’s still not entirely over: what I sing is not always literally meant that way, and you can hear that in the way it is sung.

I think that after a year of Portishead I’ve become a little more sober.

I’ve just put my heart and soul in a song and need at least a week to recover.

My voice adapts itself to the music. I can do a lot more than you hear in Portishead.

Suffering for your art is most definitely overrated but I do get a certain, I don’t know, satisfaction from being able to deal with my paranoia and insecurity.

I thought I had a clear picture of death, but now I know it’s a mystery and it will always be a mystery, although it is something we all have in common: everybody knows that life ends with death.

To ask the right question is harder than to answer it.

When one has success, the answer is not to undo that success. It is to continue what has been done.

Before making a decision, ask inside for guidance. Be patient and await an answer. Act only when you feel calm and certain.

I’ve never understood the female capacity to avoid a direct answer to any question.

With the right person, everything will always be okay. Even if it is difficult, you never have a question about it. You just patiently there and wait, because you know the answer for the best.

She left this world with so many unanswered questions. But returned with an open heart.

Faith implies a continuing search, not necessarily a final answer.

Please, tell me who you are and what you want. And if you think those are simple questions, keep in mind that most people live their entire lives without arriving at an answer.