Lily Allen
I'm just not a private person. It's not like I do things because I want things to be public; it's just that's my way of expressing myself, and I happen to be very famous.Collection: Famous
When a music teacher that I had at school was taken ill and we had a variety show and I had to fill in - that's when I realized I had a voice.Collection: Teacher
I think I'm like Marmite; you either love me or you hate me.
I refuse to put make-up on just because the paparazzi are on my doorstep. I find it morally wrong.
I'm not good at many things. But I really like songwriting, and I get a good reaction from it. There's not much that I do that causes a good reaction, so it feels like if I want to have good things happen, then I should do the things I'm good at. I mean, in all seriousness, I left school at 15. I'm unqualified to do anything else.
I hang out with models, the biggest pop stars and, you know, really and honestly, I hate saying this, but none of them are achieving those body shapes by being healthy.
I don't see myself as a role model; people should look to mothers and sisters as role models.
I'm always going to have an addictive personality.
As a woman and as a mother, as a young mother, I felt guilty about being successful.
I had my mid-life crisis at 29. I've got my thirties and forties into the back end of my twenties.
You have to be in love with yourself before anyone else can fall in love with you; to be happy with yourself.
Sometimes I wish I was just a girl in an indie band. I could dance around on stage and it wouldn't be so much about me.
I don't know how much money I've made, don't know how many albums I've sold.
Because of piracy there has been a massive downturn in people buying music, which makes it more difficult for artists to make money from the sale of records.
I don't really see how any song can not feel contrived if it isn't honest, and how could I write honest songs if I don't write about stuff going on in my life and how I'm feeling?
I just felt like I couldn't deal with the everyday responsibilities of life, paying bills and all of that. I'm terrible at all of that. So I knew I had to make enough money to pay someone else to deal with all of that.
But Dad and I are the only father-and-daughter acts who have both had No. 1 songs in England.
I wasn't into anything at school. I used to get really embarrassed. I used to get asked to do performing things, and I'd go to all the rehearsals, and then I'd pretend to be ill on the day I had to actually perform. I was very unhappy at school.
I don't care what people think of me now, so why would I care when I'm dead?
I never go out to be photographed, never. I go to events because they're fun.
I think as long as you're not being malicious and you're not hurting people then you should not be ashamed of what you do.
I think of myself as quite a confused kind of person, because I think there's so many great things about the world, but there are so many awful things too. I feel very guilty a lot of the time about enjoying my life so much when there are people living in such misery.
I've always listened to music, since I was really, really young.
Yeah, I was a florist. I went to floristry school.
I studied voice when I was at school, and I was in the chamber choir, and I studied music theory as well, so I guess a lot of it came from being taught at school.
I'm opinionated, but I'm not a vindictive person and I never say anything unprovoked, either.
I think the whole, like, cultural diversity and the arty side of London is really, really great. And how it's so historic as well.
I like to be able to get up and go and buy a pint of milk without bumping into 20 people I know.
I love MySpace; it's done an amazing job for me and it's been insane over the past couple of weeks, but I'm not a poster girl for them.
My success was pretty overnight.
I think, ever since I started doing well commercially, it's always been like, 'Oh, well, you're only where you are because of your dad, and it must be because of Mark Ronson and Greg Kurstin that you do well.' It's just everyone apart from me is responsible for the songs that I've written selling millions around the world.
I grew up in celebrity world, so I know what famous people are like, and I've never looked up to them in that way.
Role models should be people that you know. Like your mum.
A lot of my honesty, and wanting to be as authentic as possible, came from coming out of bands like S Club 7 - things that felt glossy, you know? And with the rise of social media, there was an initial backlash against that glossiness, too. And then, I don't know, somehow it managed to get lost again.
In an ideal world, the 'Daily Mail' would write about what a brilliant mother I am. But it's not going to happen.
I was guilty of appropriating when I did a video called 'Hard Out Here.' I was guilty of assuming that there was a one-size-fits-all where feminism is concerned.
Everyone thinks Lily Allen is this brash, bold, funny person. It was all just a bit of a facade and bravado.
With the first two albums and with my social media, I've always been very open about who I am.
My whole childhood, I'd been dreaming of this two-point-four children, living in the country - everything was just going to fall into place, and I'd be this perfect mum. And it didn't happen. I was very shocked and disappointed.
All I know is that Conservatives aren't interested in helping anybody but themselves get richer.
I think one of my big struggles with being famous in my early 20s was that there was a constant running commentary telling me who I was.
I had quite a turbulent upbringing. It was middle class, and everything was quite comfortable, but everyone was mental.
If you ask most people, 'Who's Lily Allen?,' they'll say, 'That girl who's in the papers all the time.' Not that girl who wrote songs.
The world is run on fear and shame. And I don't feel like we can begin to overcome these things until we speak about them openly and stop being scared of what happens as a result.
I was really rubbish at school.
I used to be really envious of those kids who could do their homework and bring it in on time and were organised.
I'm not scared of anything.
I like to travel. I come from a travelling family.
My grandad was a submariner; my mum's dad was in the navy.
If you can't detect the sarcasm you've misunderstood.Collection: Sarcasm