I'd hate it to become style over substance, I'd hate people to start putting me in a magazine article about my style. I don't like dressing up in something I'm not necessarily comfortable in just to make it more of a show. I want the power to come from what I sing about and how I sing.
— Ellie Goulding
I couldn't really relate much to my younger sister, because she was born in 1992, and I was born in 1986. And then my older sister, we just didn't get on that much. Although we bonded over hating our stepdad.
You get to a certain age and you can't judge yourself on your dad or your parents.
I think all the covers I do have nice sentiments, particularly 'Your Song.' People write me very sweet messages about that song, though I'm sure there are people out there saying that I've ruined it too!
I'd like a male to listen to my music and find it kind of fascinating, what a girl goes through when they get heartbroken or get sad or get hurt by something.
It's usually a big kind of vent of frustration or anger or sadness that puts me in the right frame of mind to write. It's such a cliche to say that artists write when they're down, but it's true for me. It's a relief to get out what's eating away at my heart or my soul or my head.
I'd call what I do pop music, but it's folky and electronic and it doesn't really sound like much else.
I'd like to look like Madonna when I'm her age. I also look at athletes and love their bodies. I've always wanted to be muscly, not skinny. A lot of women yo-yo around, but I'm always aware if I'm getting a bit out of shape. I never look at the scales but I can just tell. It goes on my tum and bum.
My mum was too busy raising four of us to encourage my hopes. But I'm glad I had the upbringing I did. It made me a worrier and a thoughtful, curious person.
Bjork, I'd love to do something with her. I'd love to do some sort of crazy orchestral choir thing with her.
My hairdresser in the U.K., Adam Reed, has his own line, Percy and Reed, and it's really good. And I use Moroccan Oil and Kerastase as well.
I'm a bit of a like girly-girl, really, I like flowery stuff.
I keep getting compared to Marina and the Diamonds because she's kind of in the same place as me at the moment. It's quite annoying being compared, actually, because it almost downgrades your work and makes you feel like you're just another female artist.
If a hundred people want autographs, sometimes you have to say no because you've got to get up for a 4 A.M. flight or something. In that sense, it really pisses me off when people think you've become a diva. It's not becoming a diva, it's because of the situation, I think.
I love pink - pink's my favourite. I hardly ever - weirdly - wear it, but I love the colour pink.
The very first song I wrote was about a boy that I was obsessed with.
America saw me as a projection of me that I always wanted. That's why I love going to America so much. I feel like I started off in America exactly how I wanted to start everywhere.
I maintain that when I finally retire from my career in music, I will go and live back in Wales - when I am an old person, if I live to be an old person. The water I miss, and the air, there's something different about it. And I miss the simple life.
I could always sing, from a really young age, but my voice was really weird. I used to make my mum turn up the radio every day in our house. She was well into music so I got that from her.
I never remember having a plan. All I could think about was how I was going to afford to get into college or where I was going to stay because I hated being at home. I didn't really have time to think about anything in the future. I didn't think about a career or anything. I went to uni, got a couple of jobs, so I sort of funded it myself.
Lauryn Hill is quite political and is very bold and isn't afraid of wearing her heart on her sleeve, and same with Bjork, except she is a little bit more kind of fragile.
I find male singers and what they sing about fascinating. It makes me realize how little we know about ourselves and how little I know about myself. It's interesting to see the male perspective.
Since I met Starsmith, my producer, I really feel like I'm making music because we write it together and produce it together. I've got a proper involvement in the end product as opposed to just writing a song and finding someone else to produce it.
I love prints of skulls and bones and have some taxidermy - a crow and a rabbit - to remind me of home. I like art and have a big portrait of Bjork.
I can fall in love in a simple way, but I can dissect it in such an intense fashion when it ends.
I'm not afraid, as a writer, of being emotional. I'm obsessed with human emotion, body parts, physicality.
Drake, I'd like to collaborate with. He's a phenomenal lyricist. Probably the best rapper in the world at the moment. I love Kanye but there's something about Drake; he's more straight up, really clever and really poetic and metaphorical - I love that. He's just clever.
I love designer stuff but like it will only be like, on a whim. I love Alexander Wang so much, but it's expensive.
I got a random tattoo the other day. It's a red triangle, which makes everyone think I'm arty, which I'm not. I used to draw red triangles all the time. It must mean something - maybe I don't know it yet. But I'll figure it out.
The nature of how we are as human beings is that we're much more interested in being critical rather than praising something.
I'm quite private. And I never wanted to be the biggest star in the world, really. So in that sense I've got a good balance of doing great shows, of making an appearance every now and then and writing music, and I don't really have to do much else.
I was super brainy and a proper geek at school, but there would always be a boy. But that sort of obsession did turn me into a songwriter. My writing has always come from that feeling of infatuation.
'I Know You Care' is really personal and fragile for me. For me, it's about losing a family member and also about a breakup. It's about this idea of losing someone for good.
Well, on tour I eat terribly, so I balance that by running a lot. And then I started to run with my fans in certain cities. It sounds very nerdy and un-rock n' roll, but I like it. It's fun, and it's better than meeting fans in weird, awkward circumstances. So I take them running with me.
I was the first person to go to university from my family.
I suffer panic attacks which has made me really conscious about my fitness and I have become addicted to jogging. It might sound odd but a lot of good has come out of it. My fans send letters saying they have taken up jogging because I do it.
I'm really proud of 'Bright Lights' because I was still in the mind frame of my first album when I was putting it together, but next time I want to display something different. I don't want to be as young, immature and all about boys!
When I heard Bjork's debut, that was when I first realized that I could be a singer, even with my unusual voice.
I record stuff all the time, like little vocal things. I write random things down... Sometimes I just get things stuck in my head and I record them, and that actually becomes a song quite a lot of the time.
I don't think there was ever a moment when I was like, 'Yeah, I want to be a singer!' I guess it just happened. I performed a lot when I was younger and stuff, but I remember getting to the point where I thought I might have to get a normal job.
The only day I remember of my parents' marriage was the day my dad walked out. As I stood there at five years old, with my older sister and younger brother, I knew that he was gone.
People always try to find my agenda, but I don't really have one. It's safe to say that I make pop, but I think that I'm doing important music, too. I've just always done what I wanted to do.
I've got a song called 'Salt Skin' because when you run in the heat it evaporates and you've got salt crystals on your face. I love that, because it means you've worked really hard.
I never thought I'd say the sentence 'It was a real honour' - because that implies that you've done something pretty special. But now I've done that several times. Yesterday I was in Buckingham Palace - I actually met the Queen yesterday and that was an honour. I never thought I'd do something like that.
I used to be obsessed with Pearl Jam, but I love having pink hair and kind of looking like a Barbie.
Not much shocked me. You know, I worked in a home for Alzheimer's patients and my dad used to be really into murders and stuff, so I saw dead bodies. It desensitised me to a lot of things.
There are plenty of bands who never get in the charts and it doesn't mean that they're not any good. Actually, a lot of the top ten is filled with stuff that just sounds the same. I could guess what's in there now - probably a bit of GaGa, Beyonce and some U.S. R&B males.
I just sing and write songs and wear what I want. It's quite a good job really. If I wanted to I suppose I could become more of a fashion icon, but singing is my thing.
I've learned not to let it be the end of the world if a boy doesn't like you. I used to put so much effort into boys. I started playing guitar because I wanted to impress this boy. Then, I ended up in love with guitar and I didn't care about the boy anymore.
My voice has been very, very produced, and very treated - but then, also, it hasn't.
