I am in competition with no one. I have no desire to play the game of being better than anyone. I am simply trying to be better than the person I was yesterday.

Taylor [Swift] always inspires me, not just with music -- she just inspires me as a person. She's really, really sweet and just reflects beauty inside and out. If I'm going through anything Taylor can pull me out of it in five seconds.

You can't shut down, you can't say, 'What can I do to make this go away?'. You have to let it be painful and get through it. Every day gets better. Because when you're in love, you kind of give everything and make that person your life. So every day you get more and more of yourself back, and it feels better.

Music just affects people's feelings. It brings out emotions in you and makes you happy and sad.

These past years have been really transitional for me in every aspect - personally, emotionally and professionally. I was excited and nervous and anxious because I literally had nothing to fall back on. This is my own thing, it's all me. I spent a year working on the record and really wanted to spend time on what it was going to represent and how it was going to represent me in this time in my life.

Be yourself cause everyone else is already taken.

I've tried it, and I've never been that girl. I'm always going to be the girl you want to take home to your parents, not for the night.