Alison Moyet

“It wasn't like I felt I was on a wave. It was just so easy. It is only afterwards that I thought I really had a bit of good luck going on there with Yazoo.”

“I'm a bit multifaceted in the sense that I've got many more than one musical taste. If you think about it, I started out playing in a punk band and ended up doing electro-pop. That was more an accident than a plan.”

“I have always loved a hard-faced girl. I get that Alison Goldfrapp isn't easy, and I like her belligerence. She's deeply sexy and controlled, like a Strict Machine, and it seems to wind the b'jesus out of the women I know. On the outside, I watch and smile and will her on like a twisted silent maiden aunt in the dark corner.”

“Becoming famous is a really shocking thing, especially when you don't have aspirations to it. It got to the point where I would try and avoid making eye contact with anyone. It was freaky, and it just happened overnight. I couldn't handle it.”

“When you have kids, it limits you. That was a choice I made.”

“Psychologically, I'll always be a fat girl because that's what my character is built on. I always got a buzz out of people telling me I was ugly. I went out of my way to un-beautify myself. I didn't want anyone's approval.”

“I was a single parent, and I was prohibited from working.”

“I was writing and I have three kids. I was occupying my time with them but it was difficult.”

“The thing with me is, I'm both untidy and I hate mess. But I'm not untidy in communal spaces, like living rooms. My bedroom is havoc.”

“It's really irrelevant, but I wouldn't want to be stick thin. It's better to have bit of fat on your face when you get older.”

“Personally I think women look better with a bit of chub on them.”

“My soul desires a pre-industrial world, and since I can't have that, I don't really care for anything material.”

“One of the reasons I got really fat when I left home was because I thought rich people ate white bread and Spam. I also thought they could get processed meals, because we never did, so that was exciting.”

“I spoke Franglais growing up.”

“When you make a lot of money for a record company, they don't want you to evolve. Growing older, you naturally do.”

“My big chip is that I never had an education. I wanted my children to get one so they didn't fall into the same trap as me.”

“I have never done any other job. I have sung in bands since I was 15. I left school completely unqualified. I have no other training.”

“There has always been a feeling with people that they love my singing but not always the choice of material.”

“People always had something to say about the fact I was odd looking, bigger than other people, that I was awkward. When I discovered punk, I bought into it. That look, combined with being fat, made me even less of what people thought a young woman should be.”

“There are very few record companies who will entertain a middle-aged woman coming to them with original material.”