Spend time reflecting on your emotional and physical existence and how that applies to the voice. You have to apply that wisdom and experience when you sing - it's what comes through.

Heartache is very fertile ground for song-making but so is happiness, so is absolute bliss.

Television really has been my vehicle. I don't get played on the radio much, so I've relied on TV a lot.

I mean, I am fully aware of my influence and my responsibility to society in general representing the gay community. But in the same time, I don't represent the entire gay community because it's a vast, vast community, as one can imagine.

It's just a theory really, but I have always thought that your physical surroundings can shape your voice and personality.

As a songwriter you have an umbilical cord to the song and it's hard to expand on your understanding of the lyrics. Whereas when you cover a song you can create your own reason why you're attached to it.

I'm a singer and as long as I can sing - which, thank God, is something that I still seem to be able to do - I'd like to carry on making records.