“I never went to college and I was raised in Arkansas so there wasn’t a lot of academic language being thrown around my house.”

I was overcome by the Holy Ghost one time, but in a Baptist way. I was six or seven, and I was saved. I just cried and cried. It was joy!

Portland is a place where you can find a community as a feminist, a vegan or a fat activist. Artists, musicians, knitters, and filmmakers can all meet like-minded souls. It’s proved the perfect place for me and all my punk friends.

I think if the world were a fair and just place, there wouldn’t even need to be a gay label.

You’re talking about a major label, we’re talking about serious business; you’re not an artist anymore, you’re a business, you have to work in terms of product, you have to release a product, and I don’t really think that way at all.

I love sad songs. They say so much. I love country music but even the happy songs sound really sad.

Girls are taught to sing high and pretty, like Antony, not low and from the guts like Nina Simone. But we’re slowly trying to change that. There are so many things we’re not told growing up, and it’s our true feminist responsibility to take the truth to the people who need to hear it.

I’ve had people ask me in interviews what it’s like to have money, but that’s not how it is. I have a middle-class life. I have a room in London but not a house, nor a BMW.

Growing up as a chubby kid with a ton of imaginary friends and a Cyndi Lauper obsession, I learned about rejection early on and was constantly trying to avoid it.

I have learned so much making first collection that I am excited to use all of it towards making the next one even better! It’s been an amazing learning curve and experience.

I’m 90% performer, 10% musician. I’ve always said that Gossip are a band I would go see, not a band I would listen to.

I was born fat and have always been, which was just fine and even healthy and cute until I turned ten or so. Puberty hit like a hurricane and brought a new set of rules. All of a sudden it was my fault I was chubby.

When you see a fantastic colour or cut in a magazine, perched up on some famous so-and-so’s head, it’s tempting to ask your stylist for the same, but DO NOT BE FOOLED. The hair in those fancy photos can be very high maintenance.

We all seek approval, and our mother’s seal is usually the most important. The nitty gritty is that we have to accept ourselves, even if it is just to be ready for the next cut-down. Mom’s blessing or not.

I never said I wanted to be a singer for the rest of my life.

Someone told me once that Lucinda Williams takes six years between albums, and that’s what stuck to me; it’s like, you really are a factory. You don’t do things to make them, on your own time.

With a stretch belt, anything can be a dress – a dinner napkin, a tablecloth, even a towel. Just wrap and snap, and away you go in an incredible outfit. Another plus is that the belt will pull all eyes to your lovely curves, and they even look good around a coat or a jacket.

I’m natural, but I wear makeup seven days a week.

In Brazil, there isn’t just one beauty ideal.

Brazilian women love expressing their beauty through makeup.

I had a feeling it was gonna work out because not only did I enjoy the music and hit it off with the guys, but I was into theatrical rock and was willing to wear makeup and do anything to make it.

Every time Paul and Gene use my makeup, they have to pay me a royalty check. I think they changed the makeup so they didn’t have to pay me.

I want to do wardrobe. I want to do hair. I want to do makeup. I want to do writing. I want to do directing. I want to do all of it. I like it. And I want to do producing.

I’m ready to go. I’m not going to sit in a makeup chair for an hour and be like, “Then I’ll go get the story.”

You never know what’s going to happen, so I get up at 6 a.m. every morning. It’s a new wakeup call for me, for sure. But you just want to be polished. That way, if anything happens