I've gone through the village of my songwriting and my artistry, and I've gone through lots of different phases, including one where it has been very quiet and abandoned me for a few years.

You know, people want to honor me, and on the one hand I just don't want to be a poster child; but on the other, I want to do something classy and great - something where the residuals will go to the cause.

There was a French singer, Francoise Hardy - I used to look at her pictures and try to dress like her.

I had this terrible stammer, so I couldn't really speak properly until I was 16 or 17.

We are in this period now where we all are trying to be in shape physically and deny ourselves any pleasure.

Sometimes my boyfriend would write the lyrics and I would write the melody, and other times I would start from scratch. Or sometimes I would take a local poem and put that to music...I always sang standards because the songs I wrote for myself weren't as easy to sing.

I used the physical scar of my breast cancer operation, the scar that I have across my chest as a metaphor for all kinds of scars.