Winehouse: “Living is so much more rewarding if you strive for something, rather than take what's given to you on a plate.”

Winehouse: “There’s no point in saying anything but the truth.”

Winehouse: “I always try to write a song to work things out with myself and I want to do it with a little punchline at the end, because I never want to remember anything bad in my life.”

Winehouse: “I’ve never understood though why people get so upset about things that don’t really matter.”

Winehouse: “I thought that everyone could sing. I never thought it was an odd thing, just that everybody in the world could sing and my mum was just unlucky. I didn’t realize that I had anything special, even when I was at stage school. I realized that I was a good singer but I thought I’d be a comedienne or an actress. I never thought I would make money out of music even though I knew it would always be the main focus of my life and the greatest joy. I still don’t think I have anything special, there’s a million girls like me – it’s just that I’ve been given a massive opportunity."

Winehouse: “I’m not very Jewish in a going-to-synagogue-regularly sort of a way, but I am what’s known in Hebrew as a ba’alabusta – somebody who can’t stopping fussing over other people.”

Winehouse: “I’m like my Nan in that anyone coming into my house has to be fed whether they’re hungry or not. I had my first day off yesterday in I don’t know how long, and ended up cooking breakfast for the boy, lunch for my dad and early dinner for my friends. In between that, I did the cleaning.”

Winehouse: “I don’t say things because I’m bitter. I say things everyone else is thinking but no one dares to say.”

Winehouse: “I was expecting it to be cynical because I'm like that myself. I wouldn't want it to be all roses because life isn't like that.”

Winehouse: “All the songs I write are about human dynamics, whether it's with girlfriends, boyfriends, or family.”

Winehouse: “I love lyrics that twist things. When I write a song it’s usually because I’ve got to a point where I go ‘what am I going to do, I’m f*cked, I got to write a song’. I always try and put a kick into them because when I listen back to those songs when I’m sixty I don’t ever want to think that I was a depressed and fucked up seventeen year old. I want to think I handled it well, didn’t create too much of a drama. The songs that I love are when you expect one thing and they say the other. I love being surprised and I try and do that myself, flip things at the end."

Winehouse: “I do suffer from depression, I suppose. Which isn't that usual. You know, a lot of people do.”

Winehouse: "Life is short and I have made a lot of mistakes, but everything in life happens for a reason"

Winehouse: “I was bored of complicated chord structures and needed something more direct. I’d been listening to a lot of girl-groups from the 50s and 60s. I liked the simplicity of that stuff. It just gets to the point. So I started thinking about writing songs in that way.”

Winehouse: “I'm not a very 'poor me' kind of person. I wouldn't want it to be all roses because life isn't like that.”

Winehouse: “Music is something where I can be completely honest, and sometimes I don’t want to sing some of the songs ’cos they’re so raw.”

Winehouse: “I definitely want to have a family, which I have this notional idea of happening when I’ve done another three albums and can take time out to be with them when they’re young. There are a lot of good working musician mums who’ll disagree with me, but I don’t necessarily think you can do both.”

Winehouse: “I'm of the school of thought where if you can't sort something out for yourself then nobody can help you.”

Winehouse: “I always wrote poetry and stuff like that, so putting songs together wasn't that spectacular.”

Winehouse: “I was hit by a car once on my bike, but I still rode home.”

Winehouse: “I wouldn't say I'm a feminist, but I don't like girls pretending to be stupid because it's easier.”

Winehouse: “I can’t even work with someone unless they know more about music than me. I have to learn from them or it’s pointless.”

Winehouse: “Life happens. There is no point in being upset or down about things we can't control or change.”

Winehouse: “If you don't throw yourself into something, you'll never know what you could have had.”

Winehouse: “I can play a lot of different instruments adequately but nothing really well.”

Winehouse: “I feel like I've come to the realization that life is short, you know? You have to live in the moment. You have to seize the day.”

Winehouse: “I don't think your ability to fight has anything to do with how big you are. It's to do with how much anger is in you.”

Winehouse: “I'm my own worst critic, and if I don't pull off what I think I wanted to do in my head, then I won't be a happy girl.”

Winehouse: “I'd like to be remembered as someone who wasn't satisfied with just one level of musicianship...as someone who was a pioneer.”

Winehouse: “Success to me is not success to the record company or whoever. Success to me is having the freedom to work with whoever I want to work with.”

Winehouse: “At the end of the day, I don't have to answer to you, or my ex, or a man in a suit from the record company. I have to answer to myself.”

Winehouse: “Some men do think I'm a psycho bunny-boiler.”

Winehouse: “If you're nice to me I'll never write anything bad about you.”

Winehouse: “I love America, it's a much more permissive place.”

Winehouse: “To be honest, I think kids have got a lot more going on than adults. They've got their heads screwed on a lot better.”

Winehouse: “I don't ever want to do anything mediocre. I hear the music in the charts and I don't mean to be rude, but those people have no soul.”

[On criticism]

Winehouse: “They’ve every right to have a go at me, as I’ve every right to have a go at Bono.”

Winehouse: “My parents pretty much realized that I would do whatever I wanted, and that was it, really.”