Quote

I had a dialect coach to get an American accent, and then another dialect coach to come off it a bit. There is something deep and mysterious in the voice when it isn't too high-pitched American.

My early novels were very understated and English. Fourteen years ago, I met and married my American husband, and as I learned more about his background and culture, I became interested in using American voices.

'The Voice' is not just a singing competition. It really comes down to how you come off as a person and how you connect with America with your story, and being relatable to people.

I tend to focus on young people and on giving a voice to groups of people who don't normally get their voices heard.

I find standard American the hardest. It really fits in a different place in your mouth. Southern, I find the easiest. If you talk to a dialect coach and you get sort of technical, where an English person keeps their voice in their throat, a Southern person does the same, and it's got the same sort of music to talking.

Voices are always a challenge. I always have to work at each accent I do.

Anyone that has come to America past the age of eighteen will be able to understand when I say that you can never shake your accent.

America is remarkable, don't you think so? When I came to Washington, I was twelve years old. I spoke English with an English accent. It was assumed that it would go on in that way.

My grandma said - when I was really young and I'd sing along to the radio - why do you sing in an American accent? I guess it was because a lot of the music I was listening to had American vocalists.

I'm very aware when I'm speaking to the English of how flat my Mid-Atlantic American voice is.