I don't know whether when I was 20 years old or 25 years old if somebody would have come along with incredible wisdom whether I would have really listened.

Comparing Madonna with Marilyn Monroe is like comparing Raquel Welch with the back of a bus.

I'm always being inspired .

I like the big bombastic singers, but I'm also very drawn to what I call character singers. They're people who obviously aren't very huge singers, but they've got this ability to tell a story and touch you emotionally without really using any kind of histrionics or special effects.

I'd got very successful, everyone knew who I was, but I felt very empty.

As a kid, I would've loved to get a tweet from David Bowie or Joan Rivers or Tom Cruise. It's great that you can communicate with people and it's instant.

You're lucky if you reach the point where you go, "OK, I have a wonderful life ...I fly around the world, stay in beautiful places, people are generally quite sweet to me, what's to complain about?" But I think you have to get there... And it's taken me the best part of 54 years to reach that point where I'm like, "I'm very lucky, I'm lucky, I'm blessed" - all of those things. I wish I could impart that to other people but I think when you're young, you just don't listen.