Katie Melua

“I don't mind doing publicity but I want to make sure it's the right type and it's about promoting my music and not me.”

“I'm the worst customer for a credit card company because I always pay my balance off every month.”

“I think singing is such an important and incredible art form and it is quite undervalued at times.”

“I love a classic, white silk shirt with dark trousers or jeans or a dark, knee-length skirt: timeless clothes that are not too fussy always work.”

“I love winter. It's a beautiful time, but also a melancholic time, a reflective time, and I'd come to a point in my life where I felt I had to make certain decisions about my career.”

“I love fruit. One of my earliest memories is climbing trees for figs, and I once got stuck in one when I was six. I could see the biggest, juiciest fig and I climbed up and got it and ate it right there, sitting on a branch. Then I realised I couldn't get down.”

“Some of the songs are inspired by personal things that have happened. Others have been inspired by other people's stories, you know, like someone that witnesses something and so I tell the story through my own eyes. And some songs are just about how I feel about the world and others about the places that we have travelled to.”

“When I had a mental breakdown I was 26 and the most important thing before that was my work. And I still adore it. But it was all that mattered and everything else was secondary: my relationship, my family, my own health.”

“Children are resilient - they can always find a way to play.”

“But I'll never forget my trip to Las Vegas. I'm a huge rollercoaster fan and we did the one at the Stratosphere, which curls around the hotel, and there's one that dips out from the roof then comes back in. That was intense.”

“I'll go through the budgets for tours and recordings, royalty statements... You have to wise up about it a bit more.”

“I go into a book store and start having heart palpitations. I get very excited.”

“The thing about doing gigs is you make music, and then it is gone and that is being watched by thousands of people.”

“Well, I always write when I am inspired, and I am not a constant song-writer.”

“I don't cook very often but when I do I try and make Georgian food. I made a hinkali recently, which is like ravioli but is the size of your palm, with meat in the middle and thicker dough.”

“I grew up eating quite well, even though the idea has got around that my family were terribly poor in Communist Georgia. I think it's partly because we had different standards then - it was tough, but we never truly struggled for food.”

“I love being out in nature. That is really important. It's everything actually.”

“I never wanted to be a celebrity.”

“Buying books is probably my biggest vice when I travel.”

“I know I've been lucky, but I'm not very materialistic - I don't believe in collecting many unnecessary things and I'm not into girlie shopping.”