I've always been serious about music. After you've done it for so many years, you get back to the basics.

I do not wear my emotions on my sleeve; I write about them.

You can't listen to what people who aren't musical have to say. When Anytime was released, I had bad reviews, and at first I was hurt. Your songs are like your children. You don't want to hear, 'Your kid is ugly.' But I knew the record was good and it would sell.

It's just exciting to be part of something that is brand-new.

I watch my contemporaries, and they love to live in the studio and I don't. I have a life. I treat it as a 9-to-5. I try to create something new every day, and then I get on with my life.

Everything I have now is so real, so vivid.

It is great to have your own label; you can cultivate your own artists I've worked with pretty much everyone I wanted to.