Why fear death? Be scared of living.

I find it dull when my heart meets my mind

I'm the first to admit that I'm still pretty young.

When a song wants to be written, it will be written.

I'd prefer to be good, but I'm not always. I struggle.

Living in L.A., I was completely lost - and I enjoyed it.

I am quite competitive. In stupid things like card games.

I speak because I can to anyone I trust enough to listen.

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

My songs are not pretty. They're what I call optimistic realism.

A friend is a friend forever And a good one will never leave, never

I do so hate to be forced to be anything than other than what I am.

You are what you can prove you've done. That's how people judge you.

But if i sit here and weep I'll be blown over by the slightest of breeze

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

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

Lover please do not fall to your knees it's not like I believe in everlasting love

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

I like living in the city, but I like being able to get out of it as and when I like.

Take me somewhere I can grow Give me something let me go Tell me something I don't know

Oh! To not need cognitive justification for every single thing. Wouldn't that be a life?

It’s hard to accept yourself as someone you don’t desire / As someone you don’t want to be.

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

All my songs come from me because I only seem able to write about myself and my experiences.

Age is relative. Experience is relative. And I think often intensity is confused with maturity.

Now that I'm feeling the responsibilities of adulthood, the choices we make become an incredible weight.

I don't need to sell tons of records, but I want longevity. I want to make music for the rest of my life.

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

There's a house across the river, but alas, I cannot swim I'll live my life regretting that I never jumped in

I thought ‘I wonder what will happen if I try and root myself somewhere?‘ Look back over the past eight years.

I love the way you can fall in love with a piece of literature; how words alone can get your heart doing that.

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

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

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

I'm a lot more observational than personal in my writing. My writing is mostly a lot of questions without answers.

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

If I don't have an outlet in which to express myself...throug h songwriting or other mediums...I get a bit jittery.

I think I'll feel out of place wherever I go on earth, forever. But that's fine. I have to make my peace with that.

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

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

I'm incredibly neurotic and a control freak. I like the thought that if there's going to be anyone to blame it's going to be me.

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 was an incredibly misanthrope. I couldn't relate to people my age, and I'm not sure why, as I wasn't particularly smart or interesting

When I'm singing I feel like I'm talking to someone. I'm in conversation when I perform - either with myself or with whomever is listening.

I can't give up that quick My life is a candle and a wick You can put it out, but you can't break it down In the end we are waiting to be lit

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 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 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 am slightly fascinated by the question of whether humanity is capable of change. I may have come to the conclusion that we're not, but we keep trying.

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.

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