Taylor Swift

So many girls come up and say to me, 'I have never listened to country music in my life. I didn't even know my town had a country-music station. Then I got your record, and now I'm obsessed.' That's the coolest compliment to me.

I've been singing Shakira songs in front of my bathroom mirror into my hairbrush forever. It's like a daily routine.

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.

I cap myself when I shop; I don't like to spend extravagant amounts on clothes. But, I do get lent clothes for events, it's scary to wear something so expensive, but I feel really pampered.

When I'm writing a record, I kind of don't listen to much music. Just because I want to be inspired solely on the emotion; just based on how it feels.

Since I was old enough to understand what a songwriter/producer is, I've had a curiosity about how Max Martin creates what he creates. I wanted to see that happen. I wanted to be there. I wanted to learn from him.

I've never wanted to use my age as a gimmick, as something that would get me ahead of other people. I've wanted the music to do that.

Most of my songs have names of people I've met or are dear to me. There are people who have privacy issues and about people knowing about their private life. But for me, I like to include few special names and few details about them to make the song very special to me.

No matter what love throws at you, you have to believe in it.

I'd like to think you don't stop being creative once you get happy.

When I am talking to people who I feel don't like me or are mean, I get really shy, and I kind of curl up personality wise.

I don't like to feel like I'm in a club when I'm in my car and I turn on the radio. Anything that ceases to be a song and just sounds like house music kind of stresses me out.

The only way I hear gossip is if it's big enough and loud enough for my friends to bring it up to me. Or if it's, like, a big untrue ordeal from my publicist - and she hates making that phone call!

I would love to sign on to do a movie if it was the right role and if it was the right script, because I would be taking time away from music to tell a big grand story, and spend all of my time and pouring all of my emotions into being someone else. So for me to do that, it would have to be a story worth telling.

The most miraculous process is watching a song go from a tiny idea in the middle of the night to something that 55,000 people are singing back to you.

I like touring extensively because I think the more hours you spend onstage, the more you know who you are onstage.

One element of Madonna's career that really takes center stage is how many times she's reinvented herself. It's easier to stay in one look, one comfort zone, one musical style. It's inspiring to see someone whose only predictable quality is being unpredictable.

I'm the girl who - I call it girl-next-door-itis - the hot guy is friends with and gets all his relationship advice from but never considers dating.

All of my walls are covered with framed pictures of my friends.

I really like Lady GaGa and everything she is for her fans.

I don't have a type. I don't have a specific kind of human being. It's just kind of an X-factor of sorts. Everybody I've ever dated has been a case-by-case situation.

My style advice to other girls is to be experimental but always have a 'home base' and stick with your comfort style.

I don't like to feel like I'm some fragile package that has to be shipped by high-priority mail and handled with white gloves.

When I was younger we had a grape arbor, and my mom would go out and pick grapes and make grape jam in the sink - boil it, put it in jars, and give it away as gifts.

I am getting to the point where the only love worth being in is the love worth singing about.

Sitting on a bedroom floor crying is something that makes you feel really alone. If someone's singing about that feeling, you feel bonded to that person. That's the only way I can find an explanation for why 55,000 people would want to come see me sing.

When I was a teenager, my biggest lessons came from Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, George Strait, Rascal Flatts and Brad Paisley. I learned so much from opening up for those artists, and it also taught me how to treat your opening acts and make them feel like they're part of a family, not just a tour.

My favorite thing in life is writing about life, specifically the parts of life concerning love. Because, as far as I'm concerned, love is absolutely everything.

I have to write 100 songs before you write the first good one.

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.

One of my big goals as a human being is to continue to write what's really happening to me, even if it's a tough pill to swallow for people around me... I do fear that if I ever were to have someone in my life who mattered, I would second-guess every one of my lyrics.

Katie Couric is one of my favorite people.

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.

If there's a pregnancy rumor, people will find out it's not true when you wind up not being pregnant, like nine months from now, and if there's a house rumor, they'll find out it's not true when you are actively not ever spotted at that house.

I look out at the stadiums full of people and see them all knowing the words to songs I wrote. And curling their hair! I remember straightening my hair because I wanted to be like everybody else, and now the fact that anybody would emulate what I do? It's just funny. And wonderful.

I always wanted to know, and I always used to daydream, about what it would be like to stand on a really big stage and sing songs for a lot of people, songs that I had written... Daydreaming was kind of my No. 1 thing when I was little, because I didn't have much of a social life going on.

I didn't always have 14,000 people wanting to hang out with me on a Saturday night.

I love being a part of the country-music community.

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've written all my songs on every single one of my records, and that's what's been fun about looking back.

I like to write about love and love lost because I feel like there are so many different subcategories of emotions that you can possibly delve into.

I've always written songs the same way. You learn different tricks - you learn craft, you learn structure, all that - as you go.

I've always been really, really aware of my insecurities - really, really aware. I never developed that thick skin that keeps you from letting things get to you.

Some days I totally appreciate everything that's happening to me, and some days I feel everyone's waiting for me to mess up.

I put out one album one week, and I'm already worried about the next one. I feel a lot of emotion throughout the course of a day. But not to the point where you need to be worried about me.

For me, 'risky' is revealing what really happened in my life through music. Risky is writing confessional songs and telling the true story about a person with enough details so everyone knows who that person is.

I think everyone should approach relationships from the perspective of playing it straight and giving someone the benefit of the doubt. Until he establishes that this is a game. And if it's a game, you need to win. The best thing to do is just walk away from the table.

My experience with songwriting is usually so confessional, it's so drawn from my own life and my own stories.

Every one of my regrets has produced a song I'm proud of.

When I get on a roll with something, it's really hard for me to put it down unfinished.