By the second tour I had rice cakes and hummus with me, and I was jumping rope in my room.

Well, honey, I had the million dollar houses, I had the car, I had the horse, I had the barn; I had everything. Was I set free? I didn't even know what that meant.

My tastes and inspirational artists were always rather eclectic and diverse.

I have to be very careful about diet and exercise.

And I'm also looking for a comeback record and it has to touch a lot of people.

I've had enough boyfriends and enough issues. I'd seen enough train wrecks.

I came out the box and for seven years I had a huge career. And then it's done, it's dumped. But I ain't gone, and I refuse to be gone.

I smoked some pot as a kid, but I just never did drugs.

By the second tour I had rice cakes and hummus with me, and I was jumping rope in my room.

All you needed back then was a blow dryer and a dream.

But once you strip that down, you realize it's all about a voice, like a Norah Jones - that's inspiring to me.

Did people think I sounded black? Totally, but that was a marketing tool as well, but also this is how I grew up and these are my influences.

My current mantra is that sometimes we need teachers in our lives. I never had that in my life, parents and stuff like that; I tried to stay on the outside of them or anybody that had that kind of influence.

I'm not looking to go out there and make a rhythmic Timbaland track.

I started working out with a trainer and I immediately saw results.

I just try to get out of my own way because if anyone is their own worst enemy, it's usually you.

This is one hell of a business I picked to be in.

Plus, I am paranoid by nature. I need to be in control.

My first tour I was on the road for 18 months. You're just out there promoting.

When I first came out, like a lot of the artists at that time, I had a very polished, very overproduced sound.

So when I'm working out I do things extreme.

If anything changes shape or takes off without me, I'll come after you and kill you. I'm too type A.

If we were truly in the studio making a record, it would have been more time consuming, and certainly I would have been more involved in the writing process.

That's really my goal now. I'm trying to be a positive role model to my kids and to just enjoy this ride, because it's hard. It's hard to enjoy it when you're in it.

Ive had enough boyfriends and enough issues. Id seen enough train wrecks.

SO WHEN I'M WORKING OUT I DO THINGS EXTREME.

The food I eat the most is probably steamed, plain white rice. I know its really, really, really boring, but that's honestly the food I eat the most. No, I like cucumber avocado rolls... I love that.

I came from product design originally - I had been designing dolls for a toy company since I was 16 - so I'm used to working with plastic and different things. I had an innate interest in objects.

I have a collective sense of suffering.

In the history of the world, no one has ever washed a rented car.

One of the eternal mysteries of ballet is how untalented choreographers find backers for their work, and then find good dancers to perform in it. Is it irresistible charm? Chutzpah? Pure determination? Blackmail? Or are so many supposedly knowledgeable people just plain blind?

Look at other people and ask yourself if you are really seeing them or just your thoughts about them.

I am obliged to believe certain opinions myself. No man's belief will save me except my own.

The Guy Fawkes mask has now become a common brand and a convenient placard to use in protest against tyranny - and I'm happy with people using it; it seems quite unique, an icon of popular culture being used this way.

You do not need 435 people playing commander-in-chief.

I could be ordering ham at the deli, and someone will turn around and look at me and kind of stare. They'll just look at me like, 'I know I know your voice, and I know I know your face.'

I just finished my 62nd or my 63rd movie here, and you know, I do good ones, I do bad ones, I do big parts, I do small parts, I do cameos - but I've allowed myself a pat on the back, because I realized that I've been working in Hollywood now since 1973.

From wrestling to my hip-hop thing, I've just been able to do so much and meet so many crazy characters.

The more you live, the better an actor you are, but maybe I'd like to do something else on the side. Something to pay the bills as well.

My art is a form of restoration in terms of my feelings to myself and to others.

I was raised Catholic, and my grandmother taught me to stay. As a teenager, I thought if you went on a date, you should stay for a couple of years. I didn't realize that if he wasn't your cup of tea, you got to leave.

I'm living with every step. I can't live with regret. The past is the past. I'm not worried about it. I can't change it. I can't fix it. It is what it is. I'm just living.

Celebrity is the advantage of being known to people who we don't know, and who don't know us.

I've been reduced to drag.

I think it's morally wrong to keep someone away from what keeps him happy.

There's no trick of teaching acting. Either someone wants to do it and is gifted, or not.

When I was doing fringe theatre, my ambition was to do repertory. When I got to rep it was to do national theatre; then it was t,o get a couple of parts in television. I never had this great desire to overreach myself. I was too busy enjoying acting. I was just obsessed with it.

Today, in 2014, Victoria is a better, stronger, more financially secure state than when we came to government four years ago.

Wit is the epitaph of an emotion.