Taylor Swift
As your career grows, the list of things that makes you happy should not become smaller, it should become bigger.
I'm always worried about everything. Like spiders.
When I get on a roll with something, it's really hard for me to put it down unfinished.
I was from a small town, and nobody really expects you to leave, especially before you graduate. That doesn't happen.
I love making buckwheat crepes with ham, Parmesan cheese, and a fried egg on top. It's my go-to breakfast.
I still have mixed feelings about what growing up is - this thing that happens to everyone, so I've heard.
'Love Story' I wrote on my bedroom floor in about 20 minutes.
I write songs that are like diary entries. I have to do it in order to feel sane.
I'm a Sagittarius, and one of our major qualities is that we're blindly optimistic.
I became a people-watcher when I lost all my friends when I was 12.
All of my walls are covered with framed pictures of my friends.
I've been singing Shakira songs in front of my bathroom mirror into my hairbrush forever. It's like a daily routine.
Songs for me are like a message in a bottle. You send them out to the world, and maybe the person who you feel that way about will hear about it someday.
People don't usually compliment your character.
My definition of country music is really pretty simple. It's when someone sings about their life and what they know, from an authentic place.
I'm like 6'2 when I wear heels, so I tend to wear cowboy boots a lot.
My fans don't feel like I hold anything back from them. They know whatever I'm going through now, they'll hear about it on a record someday. They'll hear the real story. There's a little bit of lag time. It's not as instant as going on a gossip blog. But it's much more accurate.
I've written all my songs on every single one of my records, and that's what's been fun about looking back.
In this business you have to develop a thick skin, but I'm always going to feel everything. It's my nature.
My confidence is easy to shake. I am very well aware of all of my flaws. I am aware of all the insecurities that I have.
I get nervous for everything - literally everything.
When I go to a restaurant, yeah, I know that a line is probably going to form in front of the table, but didn't I always wish for that? Yeah, I did.
And if you're horrible to me I'm going to write a song about you and you are not going to like it. That's how I operate.
When I look at acting careers that I really admire, I see that it's been a precise decision-making process for these people. They make decisions based on what they love, and they do only the things that they are passionate about. They play only characters that they can't stop thinking about.
I'm the kind of person who needs to feel like everything happens for a reason. When you date a guy and it goes badly, that's horrible. But if you can write a song about it, then it was worth it.
I try to read as much as I can. I try to read an informative article every day. I try to stay read up on our world issues.
If you're trying too hard to be the girl next door, you're not going to be.
When I'm in management meetings when we're deciding my future, those decisions are left up to me. I'm the one who has to go out and fulfill all these obligations, so I should be able to choose which ones I do or not. That's the part of my life where I feel most in control.
Vanity can apply to both insecurity and egotism. So I distance myself, because I feel everything.
My style advice to other girls is to be experimental but always have a 'home base' and stick with your comfort style.
I think people inspire me the most. If I meet a person who is incredibly complex, and all of a sudden, I start thinking in rhymes, that person could be a muse.
I think when people make a record with a goal in mind - like taking it to the next level or making them seem more mature - that gets in the way of writing great songs.
I heard that when Christina Aguilera went back to her prom, people, like, booed her. I can't imagine going through that. If you know that's going to happen, why put yourself in that situation? I'd rather play for 20,000 screaming people, you know?
I have to work really hard to get the record deal - I have to spend years at it to get good. I have to practice to be good at guitar.
I've been a huge fan of Chris Martin forever; it'd be awesome to work with him. He's really kind, and he's been really encouraging when we've met.
There are so many emotions that you're feeling, you can get stifled by them if you're feeling them all at once. What I try to do is take one moment - one simple, simple feeling - and expand it into three-and-a-half minutes.
I've always written songs the same way. You learn different tricks - you learn craft, you learn structure, all that - as you go.
'Mean' is a song I wrote about somebody who wrote things that were so mean so many times that it would ruin my day. Then it would ruin the next day. And it would level me so many times, I just felt like I was being hit in the face every time this person would take to their computer.
The truth of it is that every singer out there with songs on the radio is raising the next generation, so make your words count.
Anything that encourages people to pick up an instrument and play, I'm fully behind.
Part of me feels you can't say you were truly in love if it didn't last. If I end up getting married and having kids, that's when I'll know it's real - because it lasted.
I don't live by all these rigid, weird rules that make me feel all fenced in. I just like the way that I feel like, and that makes me feel very free.
Getting a great idea with song writing is a lot like love. You don't know why this one is different, but it is. You don't know why this one is better, but it is. It sticks in your head, and you can't stop thinking about it.
Every single one of us has a few months here or there that feel like dark months.
I've never gotten thick skin. If you close yourself off and you get this protective armor, there is a price you pay with that - of not feeling. And feeling is important when you are a songwriter.
I don't believe in endorsing a product that you don't want to endorse.
I would love to continue in music, with writing... but I am not the kind of person who will hang around if I start to become irrelevant. If that happens, I will bow down gracefully, raise my kids, and have a garden. And I am going to let my hair go gray when I am older. I don't need to be blonde when I'm 60!
People say that about me, that I apparently buy houses near every boy I like - that's a thing that I apparently do. If I like you I will apparently buy up the real-estate market just to freak you out so you leave me.
I love dresses, and I've definitely thought about designing them someday. I just want to make sure that I wait until the time is perfect and I can do it right.