I don't want to be thought of as wholesome.

Because of the Thames I have always loved inland waterways - water in general, water sounds - there's music in water. Brooks babbling, fountains splashing. Weirs, waterfalls; tumbling, gushing.

Sadly I don't sing. I missed it for a long time, but my daughter Emma said something wonderful when I was feeling blue one day: "Mom, you've just found a different way of using your voice, and that's with your books." In a way, she's right. It's just a different way of expressing what I feel about music, individuality, art and all the things I've always loved.

I am told that the first comprehensible word I uttered as a child was 'home.

Leave every place you go, everything you touch, a little better for your having been there.

Singing has never been particularly easy for me.

A lot of my life happened in great, wonderful bursts of good fortune, and then I would race to be worthy of it.