It's much easier to write when you're sad. But you can end up isolated and depressed because you almost need to put yourself in that situation to have that angst to write from.

Ignore reality, there's nothing you can do about it.

Happy songs are very difficult to write. How many truly great upbeat songs are there?

I can understand why some people might look at me and say, 'What's she got to be depressed about?' I get that a lot in Britain, where mental health issues seem to be a big taboo.

I'm such a chameleon. I never get bored.

Saving animals is as simple as choosing synthetic alternatives instead of real fur.

If I start feeling down I'll gorge myself on pasta. That usually does the trick. It's the Italian blood in me.

Enjoy every moment: you never know when things might change.

It was only cool to have blond hair and be a surfer chick [in Sydney]. I could learn how to surf, but I still looked Italian. It took me a long time to realize that was a good thing.

Isolation is a big part of songwriting.

I wasn't born with a natural talent for songwriting.

Be calm...calm as a calm lagoon, then you will look beautiful as a beautiful calm lagoon crowned by the Moon and sheltered by the brilliance of the stars reclaiming your royalty of regal life...

The paraphrase of Gödel's Theorem says that for any record player, there are records which it cannot play because they will cause its indirect self-destruction.

Love is its own rescue; for we, at our supremest, are but its trembling emblems.

Adversity reveals the genius of a general; good fortune conceals it.

Writing a novel is actually searching for victims. As I write I keep looking for casualties. The stories uncover the casualties.

The way I see it is that all the ol' guff about being Irish is a kind of nonsense. I mean, I couldn't be anything else no matter what I tried to be. I couldn't be Chinese or Japanese.

The French say you get hungry when you’re eating, and I get inspired when I’m working. It’s my engine.

Work ethic is the most important component of being successful.

All my works are games, serious game.

I'm about as Chinese as Herbert Hoover.