I wasn't trying to be a role model for anybody. I don't think that you can.

I'm not intensely private - I talk a great deal about my life and my work - I just don't play the game to excess.

I can't understand why the front pages of newspapers can cover bird flu and swine flu and everybody is up in arms about that and we still haven't really woken up to the fact that so many women in sub-Saharan Africa - 60 percent of people in - infected with HIV are women.

Women's issues have always been a part of my life. My goal is to bring the word 'feminism' back into the zeitgeist and reframe it.

I'm a female but I have a masculine side and I'm not going to negate that part of myself.

I don't want to be owned by a corporation and obliged to make a certain type of album. I want to be free.

I get very frustrated when I hear women saying, "Oh, feminism is passé," because I think feminism means empowerment. Men can be feminists, too! Many men are feminists. We need feminism. It's not against men; it's about the empowerment of women. It's the respect of women - giving women equal rights, the same opportunities.