Lisa Stansfield
I was fortunate enough to meet Aretha Franklin but I was so overwhelmed that I just burst out crying.
I do really good banana bread. And I make a chocolate cake with fudge icing that's bloody delicious.
You never know what to expect in life, so just roll with the punches and make the most of it. Because you've only got one life and you may as well have a really lovely time. And try not to hurt anybody on the way.
I was really skinny and I had greasy hair and I was knock-kneed. There's something still in me that's like that, and I catch myself, you know when you're walking or something, and you think, 'Oh no, you're still that drippy person.'
Honestly, I think if you don't have happiness and you don't have love in your life you can have all the money and all the symbols in the world and it won't make any difference.
Working class people vote Tory because they think it makes them look a bit posh.
I'm a bit of a loose cannon, but it keeps everyone on their toes!
That's a part of human nature that men and women, women and women, whatever your sexuality, you flirt with each other and it's completely harmless and it doesn't really mean it crosses a line... You can tell where it is.
The Manchester music scene was very male dominated.
I did work incredibly hard but I think there's a certain element of luck.
I think women were just accepted more as songwriters when they sat on a stool with a guitar and had scruffy hair. It was quite insulting really, because it was like saying that if you're pretty and slim and glamorous there's no way anything could be going on between your ears, you just like doing your makeup.
I like to tinkle at my piano when I'm working out a new song - I just put my fingers down and see what comes out.
There was a period in music that didn't suit what I did. I didn't fit in.
When I make an album I love to spend a long time making it and put my heart and soul into it.
You know that something is good but you never really know how good. You always underestimate how much of an impact something is going to have.
The fame thing made me run - it got out of hand and I needed to go away.
Some women can go 12 cycles of IVF and not have a problem. They love babies. They want to have a baby - it's all encompassing. I did it just three times and then I was out. I realised that I didn't want a child.
A really happy kid. I would go off on my own a lot and live in my imagination. When I got my school report back it always said, 'Lisa should try a little harder because she always seems to be in a different world from everyone else.'
My bed is my weird little haven. It's like a deflated tent.
I like to keep everyone happy. I feel like it's my responsibility to do that.
I'd like to have more tolerance.
We never want to toe the line.
Deeper' feels like we did when we made the first few albums. It's got that excitement. It felt like a voyage of discovery.
The first writers I knew about were Motown's Holland-Dozier-Holland.
It's quite amazing how obsessed everyone is by 'Strictly Come Dancing.' I don't watch it so I don't know anything about it.
I really don't have an interest in it and people think I'm a freak because I'm not obsessed by 'Strictly Come Dancing' but it just doesn't appeal to me. I'm really sorry but I can't get into it. You get treated like a complete pariah if you don't like things like that!
I don't watch 'The X Factor,' I don't watch 'The Voice,' so I wouldn't want to do them.
I don't want to do something just to be on TV. If I did I might as well just go on and put a meat pie on my head! If I go on TV I want to be doing something I want to do.
People say to me about my music 'it got me through college, it saved my marriage, it helped me to come out.' It's wonderful to be part of someone's life in a big way.'
I feel so comfortable and at home in the studio.
You can't have artistic freedom if you have to think about seven different aspects of your own job all the time. It must be very, very exhausting.
I do admire a lot of artists now who are completely multi-faceted - they're doing seven different jobs all at once and it doesn't seem to faze them whatsoever. It just astonishes me completely and I have nothing but admiration for them.
You have to say no to a lot of people and when a lot of people are telling you what you're doing is a bit rubbish you just have to have the courage to say 'no it isn't' and believe in it.
You can make a whole album on your telephone, you can make an amazing video too!
It's always been the same from a long time ago, it's people with promises and people dangling carrots and when you're young and impressionable, and ambitious, you want to believe them. I was always lucky because there was always part of me that didn't believe these people.
That was one thing about my life and everything I've done really, it's like I've been on a diving board scared out of my life and someone just keeps pushing me!
It's like, if someone asks me to do something and it seems like a really exciting project, but I maybe really frightened about it, nine times out of then I'll say yes imminently because then I can worry after I've said yes!
I was probably about four when I really wanted to start singing.
My mum used to listen to Motown. Diana Ross was my first singing teacher, really. I'd just sing along all the time.
I didn't want to be famous, I just wanted to sing.
To me to singing is like a freedom. It's a very therapeutic thing. It's incredible. I can just lose myself. It's sort of like meditation.
I've always been very emotional when I sing.
I knew I'd made it when I was sitting on the bus into Rochdale and there was an old man listening to one of my songs. It was fantastic.
Falling in love is an absolutely beautiful thing to go through, and why people shouldn't talk about it is beyond me.
People compliment me and if I ignore them, it doesn't mean I'm rude. It just means I'm embarrassed.
I used to hate touring, I used to absolutely hate it! I think one of the reasons why was because in between songs I found it difficult to talk to the audience, and now I don't care, I say what I want!
There are lots of artists I respect and admire.
Whenever I've collaborated with anyone in the past it's just happened really, I've never actively sought it out.
I'm not the sort of person who if everyone thinks you're fabulous you thrive on it.
Fame made me insecure and insular. I wanted to run away from being me.