Alanis Morissette

But I love to entertain. My vocation is to accrue all these experiences, to write about them, to get them out of my system, to not get sick, and then to share them publicly.

At some point, I would like to write a book and other things, but I work best when there is some sort of deadline in my own mind, but not when fifty people or fifty million people are breathing down the back of my neck.

I see my body as an instrument, rather than an ornament.

And I always laugh at that, because I think I’ve always been doing what I want to do since Day 1.

I am what I am Are you what you are or What?

I felt like I was making a record under the radar, and that is my favorite way to do anything.

I’m not very experienced with boys or the whole dating thingy.

I try to just be grateful for what I have, and not [focus on] the things that I don’t have.

I don’t know how many millions of photographs have been taken of me.

Lots of people who complained about us receiving the MBE received theirs for heroism in the war –for killing people. We received ours for entertaining other people. I’d say we deserve ours more.

Now, if it’s just a little toe-tapper, got to make me feel good somehow or another, or when I sing it I can’t make you feel good.

I’m just glad to be feeling better. I really thought I’d be seeing Elvis soon.

What I recall for the first two years is my daughter not really knowing who I was and getting rather agitated when I came back off tour, as she thought I’d come to rob the house.

My first real kiss came when I was 10, and it was in an acting class. I had to do a scene from a movie where someone gets kissed under a tree, and I did not want to do it! But my acting partner wanted me to feel comfortable, so he bought a picnic basket with all these snacks. He made such an effort – and it was cute.

I’m a bit hesitant to do anything because I’m actually kind of lazy and I’d like an easier life from now on. The world’s a massive place with lots of early mornings and late starts when you’re working.

It is also a testament to the role that Ireland and its citizens have played towards combating world hunger, poverty and under-development in agriculture and rural development,

I’m starting to know how the world works a bit, and I’m learning more and more that the only thing that matters is what happens between ‘action’ and ‘cut’. I’m allowing myself to be a bit more selfish, for want of a better word, just that it’s OK to focus and that I don’t have to be nice to everybody.

I’m having a great time. I get to travel and see the world. And yeah, I’ll have a family, because I don’t want to miss out on that amazing experience, but it’s not defining who I am.

I like listening to good music – and I can’t stop playing my album.

I’ve just been so lucky, but also I’m acutely aware that I’m only a brushstroke in the whole piece.

I’ll take opinions from anyone from Jay-Z to a janitor, and I might value the janitor’s opinion more.