Laura Marling

People think I look odd onstage. But the way I deal with being incredibly nervous is by concentrating really hard.

I've always loved books by the Bronte sisters. I love Jane Austen, too. I'm more influenced by people like her than by pop culture.

I know how ridiculous this sounds because of the job I do but I don't believe in romanticism and make-believe.

The romanticised life, where all the great poetry and music and art of the world comes from, is great but it requires a lot of self-indulgence.

I definitely tell things at arm's length but that is conscious. No part of me wants everybody to know what's going on.

Womanhood is something you don't consider until it hits you.

I get up, go and get a coffee, and go do the crossword - I'm loyal to one particular paper, the 'Guardian' - and that's my idea of a perfect morning.

I need some isolation, it's necessary to me, that's just who I am. I need to be left alone.

It took a lot of time and practice for me to realise that there's no point trying to be something you're not.

I'm a bit of a magpie: whatever I see or hear or read feeds into the songs.

I'm a songwriter, and I understand artistic licence. We can embellish, go on little journeys and explore our inner selves. It can be quite self-indulgent.

I know there are lots of positives in the evolution of technology, but I also think it will be responsible for the end of a unique character, of a specific kind of geographical culture. The world is getting so small, and mass production is getting so big. Everything is in danger of becoming the same.

My reaction to everything in life is when it gets a bit complicated to water it down and make it simple again.

I feel like I'm creeping closer to finding the situation that triggers songwriting, which is obviously an extreme of an emotion.

I feel sometimes that I'm in a constant state of being lost in translation, and I guess that why I write songs.

I've noticed that, with many of the authors I like, I tend to think I would dislike them as human beings or that there'd be a healthy amount of debate if I ever did meet them.

I feel increasingly like age is very irrelevant. Quite often, cynicism is confused with wisdom, and my scorn is confused with a knowing, which I don't have.

I just think of everything I do and how happy it will make me to do it. I don't like having my photograph taken, for instance, so I don't do that often.

I'd like to make music for as long as I can; it feels like something I need to do.

I think your most intimate thoughts are only honest when they're in your head.