To me, songs come of their own volition - and with an open-ended philosophy.

I made the decision to take on board the critical feedback. Reviews are something you can easily ignore as a performer or writer but I chose to not ignore them here and I think that I benefited. I think I'm stronger for it - and I have a tougher skin as a result.

I think I've done a pretty fantastic job, but of course I want to sell millions of records.

I've had my ups and downs, and I definitely have a sense - in America, especially - that once you've made your mark and gotten your Rolling Stone piece and your Grammy nomination, that they're on to the next piece of meat, and they don't necessarily like to follow the twists and turns of an artistic career.

I was in California when this journalist made a blanket statement about the fact that she did not think that black men and women had the kind of love relationship that Rebecca and Nathan had in Sounder.

I married my first boyfriend. We just married too young. No children. So that broke up. There were a few relationships in between, and then I met my husband Adam when I was 37.

I think marriage is beautiful, but I have mixed feelings about it.

I think we've been able to establish good relationships with people on President Trump's team, and that gives us an opportunity to do better than what most people expect in terms of the relationship. And we are working towards that on many fronts, particularly on trade.