Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Of course, I like to keep my private life, private.
Buying books is probably my biggest vice when I travel.
Dancing is an important function of music, but so is crying.
Children are resilient - they can always find a way to play.
Everybody in Georgia is musical, but I was slightly obsessed.
To be healthy is, for me, linked in with feeling happy about yourself.
I go into a book store and start having heart palpitations. I get very excited.
I started writing and recording, at a very basic level, just in my own bedroom.
I do tend to drape my real feelings with pretty words and different layers and stuff.
I used to watch 'Aliens', and I just found Sigourney Weaver's character so empowering.
After 'Nine Million Bicycles', I was sent bikes from all over the world. I got about 10.
My focus was, and still is, totally on making music, getting on the road and performing live.
I spend eight to nine months working abroad and cram in a holiday when I have the odd week off.
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.
Well, I couldn't speak English before I went to Belfast. So I learned English with a Northern Irish accent.
But I do believe in living life to the full and so I have no problems spending money on travel and holidays.
At 15, I did a ouija board with my best friend. I pretended I was possessed by a ghost, and she believed it.
I've started making my wardrobe a uniform: I find that the fewer options I have, the better my state of mind.
The Georgians will treat you like royalty, and the odds are you'll do a lot of eating, drinking and toasting.
I'm enjoying doing research, to get better at the guitar, to get better at rhyming. That's an essential skill.
I wouldn't really call myself a Jazz singer I think it's offending to real Jazz singers to call me a Jazz singer.
I moved schools seven or eight times, but I never thought of it as a problem. I didn't become attached to people.
The thing about doing gigs is you make music, and then it is gone and that is being watched by thousands of people.
I'll go through the budgets for tours and recordings, royalty statements... You have to wise up about it a bit more.
I wolf food down like you've never seen. For some reason, I have no self-control when it comes to the pace of eating.
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.
Queen were the first western band I got hooked on. I got a bootleg - there was hardly any legal buying of CDs in Georgia.
Ever since I left the Brit school I've been so protected. I had a woman to do my hair and makeup every day throughout my 20s.
What I've picked up from working with the women in the Gori choir is that they don't have egos. All that matters is the music.
My father has been an inspiration - he instilled his work ethic without ever having to hammer it home. He was also very encouraging.
If I have children, I am never going to read them stories about finding Prince Charming because they will grow up feeling disappointed.
I don't get to do that very often so to just have a completely free evening where your mind is relaxed enough to read a book is exquisite.
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.
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.
My mother is caring and selfless, and really looks after me. When I'm touring, she still picks me up from the airport, no matter what time it is.
I'd also like to explore more of Georgia, my home country, because one day I really want to make an album that is written in the Georgian language.
And I've teamed up with a choir from home. They're called the Gori Women's Choir. They're a 23-piece all-female choir, and they've been going since the '70s.
The first dramatic experience I had of music was when I was five. The electricity had gone out in Georgia, and my mum played the 'Moonlight Sonata' on the piano.
But I do think I'm quite a selfish performer in the sense that I'm not one of those that's like 'Hey, come on everybody lets sing along' you know that kind of thing.
Maybe when you're 18, 19, 20, you could have a bit of a wobble if you're going on live TV and playing guitar. But in your thirties you've got to just grow up about it.
And I did feel there was an album to be made about winter that can make you feel the way Sinatra and Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline make me feel - warm, nostalgic and comforted.
I personally stream or download from iTunes because I love the quick access that I have to music; I don't have to write down a list of songs that I like and then go to the shop.
When the Soviet Union broke down, Georgia suffered a huge deal. Pretty much the whole of the 90's was known as 'the black decade... because we had a lot of electricity blackouts.
The Brits was an amazing place to get a broad musical education. But I never really thought I was going to be a singer because there was always someone better than me in my class.
When I was younger I dreamt of intrepid travel and whenever I had some time off I wanted to scuba dive. Nowadays I'm a bit more relaxed but I'd still like to do an Amazonian trek.
We Georgians are really into food and drink. We would never have finger food at a party or a wedding - celebrations are always one long meal, on one long table, with endless toasts.
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.
At 19 I was lucky enough to start making money from my music career, and when I was in my early twenties I trusted financial experts and advisers to guide me with how I invested money.
I would advise everyone to have a travel drawer. Mine contains adaptors, ear plugs, blow-up pillows for the plane, travel health books, disposable cameras, a first aid kit and torches.