I've written songs for Shirley Bassey, Marianne Faithfull, and Linda Thompson. I sort of focus on these wonderful, aging divas. But maybe that's because I think I'm Christina Aguilera.

And I am left behind Corrupted crushed and blind All for a dream That in truth was never really mine.

I am always writing; if you want to survive in this business, you need to keep working, keep creating and never stop the output.

I think the minute you mention death, people run for the hills - unless it's heavy metal. People do not like death.

My mother and father could not handle even me being gay. We never talked about it really.

I strive for what you do find in Shakespeare's work - that there is a definite humanity and a definite character behind the writing in the sonnets, and it's very real because it's so deeply personal. I try to aspire to that in what I do.

For me, the iPhone is harder than reading Faust.