Life expectancy in many parts of Africa can be something around the age of thirty five to thirty eight. I mean you're very fortunate if you live to that age. In fact when I went to Uganda for the first time one of the things that occurred to me was that I saw very few elderly people.
I would say that although my music may be or may have been part of the cultural background fabric of the gay community, I consider myself an outsider who belongs everywhere and nowhere... Being a human being is what truly counts. That's where you'll find me.
I was brought up in a tenement house in a working district. We didn't even have a bathroom! We had a gaslight in the hallway and a black-and-white TV.
I can't understand why the front pages of newspapers can cover bird flu and swine flu and everybody is up in arms about that and we still haven't really woken up to the fact that so many women in sub-Saharan Africa - 60 percent of people in - infected with HIV are women.
I think people in Great Britain are a bit jaded sometimes.
You wouldn't find a Joni Mitchell on 'X Factor;' that's not the place. 'X Factor' is a specific thing for people that want to go through that process - it's a factory, you know, and it's owned and stitched-up by puppet masters.
I watch 'Mad Men,' I knit scarves, I cook and am very, very normal. Honestly.
HIV/AIDS has no boundaries.
Fame for fame's sake is toxic - some people want that, with no boundaries. It's unhealthy.
I would like to see the gay population get on board with feminism. It's a beautiful organisation and they've done so much. It seems to me a no-brainer.
I'm just an ordinary person.
There are two kinds of artists left: those who endorse Pepsi and those who simply won't.
I was perceiving myself as good as a man or equal to a man and as powerful and I wanted to look ambiguous because I thought that was a very interesting statement to make through the media. And it certainly did cause quite a few ripples and interest and shock waves.
Pop stars are so busy having a career that they don't really have a lot of time for activism.
Fear paralyses you - fear of flying, fear of the future, fear of leaving a rubbish marriage, fear of public speaking, or whatever it is.
When you go to Africa, and you see children, they're usually barefoot, dirty and in rags, and they'd love to go to school.
Humankind seems to have an enormous capacity for savagery, for brutality, for lack of empathy, for lack of compassion.
There's a lot of women's organisations, but they're all working separately. If you get people together, as a collaborative voice, it's strong.
Over the years, I was never really driven to become a solo artist, but I was curious to find out who I was as an individual creative person. It's taken some time, but now I feel I've truly paid my dues. I guess I'm at a point now where I'm more comfortable in my own skin.
I have always felt a little homeless. It's a strange thing.