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.

But for me it is when a student has died. I find the death of a young person the most difficult and painful of times. To explain it to other young people to see a bright future snuffed out is just awful. I am haunted by those deaths.

Judged by the law of England I know this crime entails upon me the penalty of death but the history of Ireland explains that crime and justifies it.

The enemy fought with savage fury and met death with all its horrors without shrinking or complaining: not one asked to be spared but fought as long as they could stand or sit.

Even very young children need to be informed about dying. Explain the concept of death very carefully to your child. This will make threatening him with it much more effective.

Death and vulgarity are the only two facts in the nineteenth century that one cannot explain away.

I can't even explain to you how terrible that feels that I equate dating a woman with punishment shame guilt disappointment reproach reprimand persecution. It's a nightmare.

I didn't really get into golf until I was about 14. My mom and dad were taking lessons from a pro an hour and a half from our farm in Cohuna Australia. When they got home I'd ask my mom to explain everything they learned - drills and all.

When you get pure joy out of 'being' rather than 'doing' or 'seeing ' that's when you realize how big and unexplainable some things are and being a dad is one of those very few things.

I came up poor. My mother only had a fourth-grade education. My dad didn't have any education at all. But they were very structured. They worked hard. You know they didn't complain. They didn't murmur. And they believe in the Christ.

Often as a child you see someone with a learning disability or Down's Syndrome and my mum and dad were always very quick to explain exactly what was going on and to be in their own way inclusive and welcoming.

Someone once told me the one thread that runs through them all is a premium on personal courage - not intellectual courage but just plain physical courage.

I remember being in Atlantic City once when I was 18 or 19 and a sea of people were screaming and pulling their hair because I was there. It was weird. Nobody deserves adulation like that. I tried to explain it to my kids once. I said 'Mommy used to be kind of cool kind of like a Britney Spears.'

I try to explain to people that you get the roles that are right when they're right. If you have a nerd character but you're kind of a cool guy you're probably not going to get the nerd part. The nerd is going to get the nerd part. You know someone like me.

Some of the hip-hop stuff people get into is exciting because there's a passion and there's something to explain to a more mainstream audience so you get these passionate writers who want to express their love for rap and hip-hop which is cool.

I don't particularly dislike any kind of person that might be reading my stuff. They like it and that's cool but I don't do the work for any kind of group in particular except for hobos who just plain kick ass and light up my life.

It's just cool for a girl to be able to do her own thing. I do a lot of movies and I'm very lucky and I'm not complaining. But in movies alongside big action men we've always got to take a step back and let the men shine.