I worked on my voice for Sweet Dreams but only to match my speaking voice to Patsy's actual singing voice. That was my way into that character.

I've always been a bit of a decorator. I think if I wasn't a singer I'd probably be in stage setting or interior design or something. I like clutter and I'm quite visually greedy. I can't have things to be plain I have to have things looking interesting... maybe I'm just a frustrated interior designer stuck in a singing career.

My book 'Trust Your Heart' which is the story of my life will be followed by 'Singing Lessons' a memoir of love loss hope and healing which talks about the death of my son and the hope that has been the aftermath of the healing from that tragedy.

The Teutons have been singing the swan song ever since they entered the ranks of history. They have always confounded truth with death.

I feel like I am a real artist and I want to be able to feel what I am singing about. So when I sing 'Leave (Get Out) ' I have been through that. I think it is just a new generation whether people are ready for it or not. Teenagers are dating.

In our film profession you may have Gable's looks Tracy's art Marlene's legs or Liz's violet eyes but they don't mean a thing without that swinging thing called courage.

The cool wind blew in my face and all at once I felt as if I had shed dullness from myself. Before me lay a long gray line with a black mark down the center. The birds were singing. It was spring.

You know what 'New Girl' is doing is they're bringing in really cool people. These are home-run people who aren't your typical guest-star-type people.

Don't get me wrong magic is cool. But a nervous mother singing to her child at night while something moves quietly through the dark outside her house? That's a story. Handled properly it's more dramatic than any apocalypse or goblin army could ever be.

That's the best way to feed the human mind. That's how Bob Marley did it. He never put it in your face. After you got the groove you were just singing the hooks because you thought it was cool.

Jazz took too much discipline. You have to come in at the right place which is different than me singing the blues where I can sing 'Oh baby ' if there's a pause in the melody. With jazz you better leave that space open or put in something real cool.

Playing and singing at the same time is pretty cool but sometimes it's difficult to know when you can just really let go a bit because you've got to get back to bloody microphone and sing some stuff.

I've never believed in singing about Satan and thinking he's cool because he's not.

I once sang 'Summer Nights ' from 'Grease ' at a bar in Melbourne with John Travolta who's a good friend of mine. He looked cool singing the part of Danny - sitting in an armchair smoking a cigar - while I got stuck playing Sandy.

Music is the greatest communication in the world. Even if people don't understand the language that you're singing in they still know good music when they hear it.

Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.

I don't believe in the after life although I am bringing a change of underwear.

I sing both in my shower and in my car mostly in my car because I have this weird thing - whenever I'm singing to the radio - my friends kind of hate it - but I pick out the harmonies in my head and I'm singing the harmonies to the tracks and I'm jamming it out.

When I'm in the car and somebody comes on the radio singing the high notes I try to sing along.

I'm a car singer in fact sometimes I pretend to take my dog out for a walk and I'll just drive him around and start singin'.

I love singin' in the car it just makes me feel good.

Like all soul singers I grew up singing in church but sometimes I would leave early and sit in the car listening to gospel band The Blind Boys of Alabama. Hearing their lead singer Clarence made me connect the idea of church and show business and see how I could make a career singing music that stirred the soul.

I always loved music. You know my parents said I started singing when I was 4 in the car.

I am endlessly busy bringing up five young kids and trying to keep up with the three older ones. I still spend most of my life driving car pools.