It was like in Samoa when they'd put up a movie screen on the beach and show movies and the locals would run behind the sheet to see where the people went. It was pretty grim.

If I'm on location on some island we usually get up at four in the morning to set up. By seven thirty we're on the beach working until noon then we rest. It's not exactly a vacation.

Maxi dresses are also my best friend. They take me from my morning coffee to the beach to nighttime.

Holiday? Is like what? I'm a hyperactive girl so it may be boring for me to be on the beach doing nothing. I just need to find a place for three weeks and work but sleep in the morning maybe write a little bit have a glass of red wine. That's my perfect holiday.

When I wrote the song I had the sea near Bombay in mind. We stayed at a hotel by the sea and the fishermen come up at five in the morning and they were all chanting. And we went on the beach and we got chased by a mad dog - big as a donkey.

But I try to steal other moments. Sometimes I get up very early in the morning and enjoy a quiet house and cup of tea before the craziness begins. Other times I'll take a quick walk on the beach. You can find peace in a few minutes.

Miami Beach - that's where I grew up in a middle-class Jewish family led by my maternal grandfather. Me my great-grandmother - a Holocaust survivor who was my roommate - my grandparents my mom and her brother all shared a four-bedroom house.

Babies don't need a vacation but I still see them at the beach... it pisses me off! I'll go over to a little baby and say 'What are you doing here? You haven't worked a day in your life!'

Words today are like the shells and rope of seaweed which a child brings home glistening from the beach and which in an hour have lost their luster.

Abstention means you stayed at home or went to the beach. By casting a blank vote you're saying you have a political conscience but you don't agree with any of the existing parties.