I'd like to think you don't stop being creative once you get happy. My ultimate goal is to end up being happy. Most of the time.
— Taylor Swift
Country radio is much more like a family than any other group of people that I've met.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It's kind of exhilarating, walking through a crazy, insane mob. 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 still have mixed feelings about what growing up is - this thing that happens to everyone, so I've heard.
Nothing ruins your day more than getting a bad review.
My absolute favorite meal in Nashville is sweet-potato pancakes at Pancake Pantry.
My style advice to other girls is to be experimental but always have a 'home base' and stick with your comfort style.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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'm always worried about everything. Like spiders.
I didn't always have 14,000 people wanting to hang out with me on a Saturday night.
It never mattered to me that people in school didn't think that country music was cool, and they made fun of me for it - though it did matter to me that I was not wearing the clothes that everybody was wearing at that moment. But at some point, I was just like, 'I like wearing sundresses and cowboy boots.'
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.
Silence speaks so much louder than screaming tantrums. Never give anyone an excuse to say that you're crazy.
I have to write 100 songs before you write the first good one.
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.
I love hugging people. I still hug everybody in my meet-and-greet lines.
Even if you're happy with the life you've chosen, you're still curious about the other options.
I'm a Sagittarius, and one of our major qualities is that we're blindly optimistic.
When I figured out how to work my grill, it was quite a moment. I discovered that summer is a completely different experience when you know how to grill.
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.
I really like Lady GaGa and everything she is for her fans.
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.
I don't mind being pale. In high school, it seemed like everybody cared about being tan all year round, but I haven't really thought about it since then. I don't go to a tanning bed, and I get bored when I lay out. I put sunscreen on when I'm in the sun, and sometimes I get tan, but I don't really think about it very much.
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.
It's human nature to not say everything that's on your mind at the time you think it. Because we fear saying something that people will laugh at, people will think is dumb. We're afraid of being embarrassed.
I love being a part of the country-music community.
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 think who you are in school really sticks with you. I don't ever feel like the cool kid at the party, ever. It's like, 'Smile and be nice to everybody, because you were not invited to be here.'
Katie Couric is one of my favorite people.
Guarding your heart and protecting your dignity are a little bit more important than clarifying the emotions of someone who's only texting you back three words. I've learned that from trying to figure out people who don't deserve to be figured out.
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 am getting to the point where the only love worth being in is the love worth singing about.
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 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.
I've been my mom's kitchen helper since I was a little kid.
I love making buckwheat crepes with ham, Parmesan cheese, and a fried egg on top. It's my go-to breakfast.
I'm always afraid of failing. I have to quiet that fear if I'm going to get up in the morning.
All of my walls are covered with framed pictures of my friends.
I never give advice unless someone asks me for it. One thing I've learned, and possibly the only advice I have to give, is to not be that person giving out unsolicited advice based on your own personal experience.
I like touring extensively because I think the more hours you spend onstage, the more you know who you are onstage.
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.
