Quotes from Katherine Jenkins

I am fussy, about my diet and straining my voice. I know, sounds a bit over the top. But I'm not as bad as I used to be. These days I don't drink alcohol for five days before a show - very dehydrating for the vocal cords, and all that acid reflux. I used to ban it for a fortnight. Nightmare.

People perceive opera and classical as elitist - I disagree. I've always tried to mix the two, make it more accessible.

I am a perfectionist.

Singing has always been my big passion and I would love to be able to go to the U.S. and perform more.

I did once shatter a chandelier. I was singing with my college choir in Wales. I was the soloist and I hit the high note and there was this massive bang and all this glass came down from the ceiling. I'd like that to be my party trick if I can perfect it.

I really see myself as a homegirl. Wales is my first home. London is my second home - I've been there 14 years now.

For me, with the Blue Man Group, I got asked. It was for the Royal Variety Show, which was something I always wanted to be a part of. I'm really interested in things people don't necessarily expect. I did a pop song, but I did it in my own style.

I'm a huge supporter of the military. I think they do an incredible job. So when I get invited to go out and sing for them, some of the best moments of my life.

I always choose songs that I have an emotional connection to, and I often feel myself getting very emotional when I sing.

Being a question on 'The Weakest Link,' that was quite a moment.

I would absolutely, definitely never sell my wedding pictures to a magazine. I'd like it to be a special day, not a photo shoot. And once you've done that, your marriage becomes everybody else's business.

At the weekend, one of the paparazzi left their lunch box filled with half-eaten pasta salad on my doorstep: it was like a little warning, you know? 'We have been here.'

When I did 'Dancing with the Stars' I did lose an awful lot of weight and I think at the time everybody was sort of alarmed by it. You can eat anything and it is still dropping off you when you are doing that amount of exercise.

I've been lucky that I've performed with a lot of the classical people I've wanted to work with so I'd like to do something that people didn't see coming. Like Madonna, or being Welsh - the Tom Jones thing. Or somebody suggested N-Dubz - that would be brilliant!

I'm still a Welsh girl at heart so I'm staying in the U.K. for the Olympics, it's such an exciting time for Britain so it's amazing to be a part of it.

I really feel confident about my dancing now, so I hope there could be a place for me in the West End or on Broadway - maybe a musical, maybe my own show.

I have such happy memories of performing in a choir and I don't think I'd have got where I am today without all that experience. So my advice to young singers is to either join your school or church's choir or find one in your local area. Choral music at any level teaches you so much about musicianship and blending your voice.

If you love somebody, you love them. My parents had a 25-year age gap between them and my mum was the breadwinner, my dad the house husband. I'm a strong believer that a good relationship can work, whatever the situation.

I'm not naturally a person that wants to exercise, but I find running is something I can do wherever I am in the world.

I wasn't the best in my class at the Royal Academy. There was a really good soprano and baritone who were technically better and are doing really well in opera now. But I was definitely the best mezzo-soprano in my class, because I was the only one of those!

Everything in my career is my decision - every picture, every outfit. You get one chance at this, and I never saw myself as being a puppet.

When I dance, I forget everything else and just feel completely happy.

I have a long fuse.

I was such a geek in school.