I`m afraid of happy people. They`re chemically unbalanced.

It`s definitely an intrinsic part of my makeup that makes me want to see black when everyone else is seeing white.

Young girls now correlate the word `sexy` with nakedness. It`s practically, `Show us your labia`. If you play that game of allowing yourself to be judged by your physicality, it will not sustain you through a long career. There`s always going to be someone younger, more beautiful, more desirable. It`s a temple of dust. (About the music industry)

`The truth is, I`ve always been wracked with self-loathing and terrible, paralysing depression" (Talking about her childhood years and the terrible self-image she had as a child)

I look at today`s charts, at the women who are selling the most records, getting the most column inches, and I`m terrified by how they are all controlled by a male corporate idea of what women and rebels should be. When Christina Aguilera is taken seriously as a rebellious figure, we have a huge problem.

I don`t think they can deal with someone being complex and contradictory; it`s not acceptable, you have to be a cartoon, a stereotype.

I have a temper on me that could hold back tides.

Here am I. I`m 38. My career`s probably never been better. And I`ve made a decision which may or may not impact on it - I refuse to hide my experience and my age, as if it`s something I should be ashamed of. I`m alive. I know lots of people who`ve never been lucky enough to get to this stage in their life. And I`m not gonna hide it for anybody. (about being almost 40)

Starbucks is my main fix and it`s usually you people working in there - sometimes they`re actually shaking. It just makes me feel horrendous because I`ve been in that situation.

Until, I think, everyone in that school thought I was less than human. I felt ugly, weak, overwhelmed - I couldn`t imagine being capable of doing anything. I certainly never thought I could be in a band. This was a dream it didn`t even occur to me to dream about. (1998, Select Magazine)

I love looking at naked bodies, male or female, whenever possible. I think nudity is always tasteful.

You have to watch all sides of your advancement, you have to make sure people`s bodies and minds are healthy and their morale is cool before you can really go out and play great music.

At the end of the day, though, the band members have to be strong. It`s down to the individuals in the unit. Listen to me, I`m talking like I`m in the army and this is my squadron.

I am laughably aggressive, and the rest of the band is very laid back, so we mix well.

A lot of my friends are artists or musicians or single parent families and I`m totally aware of how difficult it is for them to make ends meet.

That`s a difficult question, because to consider yourself a rebel is sort of ridiculous.

I feel the same way I did when I was in school. I`m having the same insecurities. They don`t go away just because they call you a sex symbol.

I was lucky when I was young to have a very mixed peer group. I hung with the girls and the boys, and that`s continued all through my life.

No, I like being a role model because I know how much comfort my musical idols brought me.

Oh, yeah, I`m the ridiculous pit bull.

I mean, I tend to do my own thing, and that usually crosses purposes with everyone around me.

Speech is my absolute lifeline and I felt like I`d lost my personality, been stripped completely of me; I felt invisible. (About having a cyst removed from her vocal chords)

I`ve got a lot of stamina and I enjoy people, so having lots of people around doesn`t freak me out.

If you have any opinions at all or if you`re even remotely verbal then they`re going to call you fiery.

We just wanted to make a record that sounded cool. So we stole from hip-hop, we stole from techno and blues and mashed them all up.

I`m fairly in control and I don`t like to flirt particularly. I mean, obviously if I meet someone who I think is hot, of course I`ll want to flirt with him, But in general I don`t use it in day-to-day life.

A lot of people these days are not music lovers - they just want to be famous which is a very different thing to what I grew up believing in.

No, I`m not Shirley the girl, I`m the woman on MTV with the big boots.

I like the feeling that I`m giving young women self-confidence. It sounds so cliched, but it can be very moving.

"Possibly because I grew up not feeling very confident about my own physical appearance, I developed internal devices so that I could integrate into society."

"Mozart was a punk, which people seem to forget. He was a naughty, naughty boy."

"I would say I`m pretty well at ease with my sexuality, but I`m an individual before I am a female."

"I think it`s a great thing to have failed in life and then pulled yourself up by the boot straps and actually done something, because then you appreciate it more."

"I have a lot of very close girlfriends and sisters - I`m from an all female family. My father often quips that even the cat was neutered!"

"I couldn`t feel good about myself hanging out in Armani clothes when my girlfriend can`t even pay her heating bill. I`d feel foul and I`d be embarrassed."

"I am not a sexy woman, I`m not beautiful, I`m not a sex kitten, I don`t flirt with people, yet I`ve been tagged more of sex symbol than women who truly are and I that`s solely because I don`t reveal too much: people are curious."

"I am a contradictory mess but I see it as my prerogative to change my mood like the weather."

"And then there`s all these other creeps that surround your band and suck off you like leeches and try to manipulate you and your business. You have to watch like a hawk. I`m always ready to fight. I see it very much as a battle."

"A lot of celebrities just want money, fame, power, fancy cars, houses all over the world and have people bow down to them. To me, that`s frightful behaviour."