I felt I really wanted to back off from music completely and just work within the visual arts in some way. I started painting quite passionately at that time.

I don't like people probing into my life, so I reveal as little as possible or lie about it as much as need be so as to give them something to write about.

I think everything that I learned about stagecraft and carrying through - creating a through point for a theatrical device.

What I do is I write mainly about very personal and rather lonely feelings, and I explore them in a different way each time. You know, what I do is not terribly intellectual. I'm a pop singer for Christ's sake. As a person, I'm fairly uncomplicated.

Nearly all the synth work on Heathen is mine and some of the piano.

Trying to tart the rock business up a bit is getting nearer to what the kids themselves are like, because what I find, if you want to talk in the terms of rock, a lot depends on sensationalism and the kids are a lot more sensational than the stars themselves.

I wish myself to be a prop, if anything, for my songs. I want to be the vehicle for my songs. I would like to colour the material with as much visual expression as is necessary for that song.