Quotes from KT Tunstall

When you make an album, you have to decide how much you want to give away; you have to decide how much you want to open up. Because the more you open up the more rewarding it can be but the more dangerous it can be. If you really open up and it gets panned it's really painful.

My father had Parkinson's, though he actually died following a bicycle accident.

I didn't find fame particularly difficult, partly because I'm proud to be able to say I'm the most unrecognisable face in pop.

KIN' is basically a kind of rite of passage, scars-and-all celebration of going through difficult things in your life and being better for it.

My father passing really, in many ways, was a gift: It made me look at my own happiness and sense of self and realize that I wasn't happy. I had checked all these boxes and achieved all this stuff that I thought made you happy. And I was miserable.

I can do the vocal acrobatics but I really try not to. I've always been drawn to singers who sing it like it is, pure, straight down the line: Ella Fitzgerald, Patti Smith, Carole King. Simplicity is really important to me.

I really enjoy tech, but I'm not voracious - I'll find stuff because I want to use it, not because I'm interested in what's out there. It's a sort of necessity relationship.

Let's face it - the electric guitar is way sexier than the acoustic.

It's a shame that when you've actually lived some life and have something to write about, they're saying you're too old to come out and play it.

I'm shocked at how much I can talk about myself.

My experience of being a singer and performer is there is something meditative and very positive about singing, just resonating the inside of your body.

I know it sounds weird, but the kind of music I write isn't the kind of music that I listen to, which is quite underground, left-of-centre stuff like PJ Harvey and Tom Waits.

For me, success is being happy. I used to think it was lots of houses, lots of record sales, lots of stories to tell. But some massive life changes, getting a divorce and my dad dying, led to a huge period of reflection.

If I can be somewhere with sunshine and have bare feet and a book, I'm happy.

My dad's a physicist and had a key to the St Andrew's observatory, and we used to pop down to see Halley's Comet and Saturn and meteor showers.

I would never pigeon hole myself stylistically because I just don't know what I am going to want to do next.

When my divorce came through, it was like being let out of a cage because I hadn't been true to myself before; I was being something that was expected of me.

My first memories of life were Californian.

I have always been a great fan of albums that are cathartic and that you can listen to them together and you can relate to them as a group of people or as friends.

My parents' concern has been one of my greatest assets - I needed something to kick against. If they'd supported me every step of the way I might not have had enough fire in my belly to get where I have. Then I think: was this whole thing reverse psychology, did you really go to those lengths?

I don't let housekeeping in when I stay in hotels. It cuts down on all the caustic cleaning products and aggressive water usage, and I never use the little plastic bottles of toiletries they set out.

Use Creme de la Mer balm when your skin gets dry on a plane. You can put it on your cheeks to give your face a bit of a glow after you land.

I've always loved the idea of 'Guilty Pleasures.'

I like that I have a boyish figure, because I love wearing men's suits.