What's best for the future of Scotland, her population and generations to come? Would breaking away from the UK bring long term benefits, or would the cessation of union be an unmitigated disaster from which there would be no turning back? From my perspective, I think the issue is complex and there is certainly a strong element of risk. Personally, I'm neither a gambler nor soothsayer and my view doesn't count in any case. One thing I do know is that the decision is not something to be taken lightly, or to be swayed by heady patriotic emotion. It will be taken by the citizens of Scotland themselves, who need to seriously weigh up the pros and cons, as the responsibility lies wholeheartedly upon their shoulders.

If people like your music you can't guarantee they're going to love you.

On being awarded the OBE: As somewhat of a renegade, it either means I've done something terribly right--or they've done something terribly wrong. In any case, whatever powers that be have deemed me worthy of such a recognition, I'm getting my fake leopard pillbox hat dusted and ready.

I love to be individual, to step beyond gender.

Historically, the image of women in pop music has been so totally ornamental - sexual, but predictably so. It's hard to tell how far women's individuality has come in the past twenty years. Certainly, if you look at the pop charts as a measuring stick, you'd think it hasn't come far at all. But women do feel less like victims now than they did twenty years ago. At heart I'm a feminist, but I'm also a feminist for men. Men should be liberated from the roles that are foisted on them also.

[on being private about her life] What did you expect? I'm human; I feel what anybody else feels. There is a big difference between what I do onstage and what I do in my private life. I don't put my living room on magazine pages. I'm not intensely private - I talk a great deal about my life and my work - I just don't play the game to excess.