Sometimes ideas are coming so fast that I have to stop doing one song to get another. But I don't forget the first one. If it works, it will always be there. It's like the truth: it will find you and lift you up. And if it ain't right, it will dissolve like sand on the beach.

I always wanted to make a three-record set. 'Sign o' the Times' was originally supposed to be a triple album, but it ended up as a double.

I don't live in the past. I don't play my old records for that reason. I make a statement, then move on to the next.

I don't talk about the past.

I really want to show women that it is OK to have a career and put that - not necessarily first, but to put it out there. You can do it all. Is it going to be hard? Yes. Is it going to be worth it? Of course.

And my mother caught wind of this. She never had really tried to guide my career or really had any say in my life as an adult, but this was the one time she said she would never speak to me again if I quit acting.

If Barbara Walters was interviewing me, I'd figure her career was as dead as mine!

You see people with a room full of their career achievements. Brilliant. Well done. That's just not something I do. They're in a bin bag in my mum and dad's loft.