“I don’t have a competitive bone in my body, so the last thing I want to do is be competing with people.”

When I do my shows, it’s really cross-generational. Sometimes there’s three generations there.

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.

Sometimes I hear the crowd cheering, and most of the time your body’s on auto pilot, so sometimes even after I do a floor routine, I’m like, ‘Did I really just do that?’

I have no boobs whatsoever. On my wedding night my husband said, ‘Let me help you with those buttons’ and I told him, ‘I’m completely naked’.

I cannot lose you quietly. It will take blood and bone to pull you from my chest.

I dream about the body I wish I had and all the ways I could be touched in it.

But one thing you need to do in the game, is to adapt and adjust your game to what you have been asked to do and also to what your body is telling you to do.

A couple of times a day I sit quietly and visualize my body fighting the AIDS virus. It’s the same as me sitting and seeing myself hit the perfect serve. I did that often when I was an athlete.

It’s my body and if I want to do it like Michael Jackson, I will. My nose bothered me for a long time. Now it’s smaller and I’m happy. If I wanna put my tits on my back, they’re mine!

My smile is my favorite part of my body. I think a smile can make your whole body. I want women to know that it’s ok. That you can be whatever size you are and be beautiful inside and out.