Losing my sight had nothing to do with my focus on music. My passion for music was already there, so it would be a mistake to give too much significance to my blindness.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The fact that I am blind is not what defines my life. It should be of no more interest than my blood type. People wonder if there is a relationship between my lack of sight and the way I sing. But there's no connection.
What you lose in blindness is the space around you, the place where you are, and without that you might not exist. You could be nowhere at all.
The more I got into presenting things to the world, the further it was taking me away from what I was, which was someone who just used to sit quietly at a piano and sing and play. It became very important to me not to lose sight of that.
When I lost the sight of my eye and faced the prospect of going blind, my sight was saved by the NHS.
When I was 18, the vision was to make music that didn't exist, because everything else was so unsatisfactory.
When I was a child, I dreaded blindness. We used to ask: 'Would we rather be blind or deaf?' I said I'd rather be blind, even though I was scared of it. I couldn't bear not being able to hear music or talk to people.
I had a vision of myself as a novelist because that was where I could be serious. I couldn't with music.
Sight is something you take for granted until you think you might lose it.
I'd rather give up my ears than my eyes, which might sound unusual for a musician.
I think being deaf gave me an increased sense of sight.