By the time I was in my early teens, we were able to move into a much more middle-class area. I had a comfortable adolescence.

The main downside was that it [fame] happened so quickly and I didn't have time to establish what kind of person I wanted to be.

I left school at 17 and was a star by the time I was 18 - in certain parts of the world anyway.

Me, I don’t want any children, I don’t want responsibility. I am gay, I smoke weed and I do exactly what I want in my life because of my talent. I represent an ideal which others have had to let go and they blame me for that. Especially men.

I was supposed to be a real Thatcherite. Just by dint of being a first-generation immigrant and having not had money, and then suddenly having it - and getting on planes and going to Ibiza and sitting around in thongs. But actually nothing I was writing or doing was even vaguely Thatcherite.

[My family] is one of the strongest families you're ever likely to see.

People run on and off the stage, but usually they're removed before they get to me. It's not really frightening. There's always the possibility that someone's going to take a potshot at you; you take that risk when you perform in front of thousands of people.