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I hadn't been a recording artist all that long when albums came on the scene, and I was one of the first singers to point the way to how varied an album's contents could be.

Obviously I got known for some other songs early on, and some of those were rock'n'roll songs. Some of them were melodic pop songs. And I've done lots of different things, as you know, but every so often I get drawn back.

A lot of people have come with 100 songs and never had the impact that I have with one, and I'm well aware of that.

A lot of the songs are based on my previous relationship. It didn't work out. I lost him, and it ruined me. I had to learn to get back on my feet. I used that heartbreak to create something really beautiful.

How many songs in your life were your favorite songs but never were singles on albums?

I'd experimented with so many different types of music. I had these folky songs I'd written and recorded, but something wasn't quite right.

I think probably the only thing that is around in these songs is that I was really lonely when I wrote a lot of them. But it was really by my own choosing because I was devoting myself to songwriting and dancing and I wasn't really going out and seeing people.

I loved a lot of different kinds of music, but for my own thing, I went for the singer-songwriters.

I had deeper, more reflective songs on the first album.

I think I had actually served my apprenticeship as a writer of fiction by writing all those songs. I had already been through phases of autobiographical or experimental stuff.