Ellie Goulding

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.

I can fall in love in a simple way, but I can dissect it in such an intense fashion when it ends.

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.

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.

I'm not afraid, as a writer, of being emotional. I'm obsessed with human emotion, body parts, physicality.

Bjork, I'd love to do something with her. I'd love to do some sort of crazy orchestral choir thing with her.

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 love designer stuff but like it will only be like, on a whim. I love Alexander Wang so much, but it's expensive.

I used to be obsessed with Pearl Jam, but I love having pink hair and kind of looking like a Barbie.

I'm a bit of a like girly-girl, really, I like flowery stuff.

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.

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.

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'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 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 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.

My voice has been very, very produced, and very treated - but then, also, it hasn't.

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.