Quotes from Charli XCX

Some people think of feminine as just being pretty and quiet and sweet, but I also think being feminine is being angry and also being sexy and aggressive and passionate.

If I can sing along to it, it's pop music.

I've always wanted to write pop music. I never wanted to be cool or make a hipster record.

I've wanted to write good pop music, beautiful pop music - not just throwaways. I've always wanted to make it sound luscious and beautiful and cinematic.

Pop music is getting so emo. It's great. Emotional girl for life. I see myself in the centre of that.

My voice is different, but I don't think I'm the only one with a different take on pop music.

I make pop music, but I do it on my own terms. I'll never play the game, so to speak, just for success. I'll always follow my heart and make the music I want to make.

I don't think that I'm a pop star. On paper, I'm bad at being a pop star with the conventional idea people have.

I feel like I'm a pop star without being a diva.

In the '90s, there was always this continuous pitting of women against each other in the media, trying to make them battle it out.

I'm lucky I have really cool parents.

When you're growing up, I think there's this idea that the coolest people are the ones who are really rude and feverish. But I've come to realize that isn't cool.

My family is average. I didn't have a crazy life as a kid.

I never set out to be a cult cool artist. I always made music that I thought was pop.

I'm not a diva, and I'm not mean to people or have weird rules.

It's kind of weird talking about yourself all the time.

I do this weird thing in studios where I climb stuff when I get nervous.

I like befriending my collaborators because I'd rather make music with people I like than people I pretend to like.

I think the best people are the ones who are just as nice and fun. This is really cheesy, but you only have one life - why spend most of it pretending to be cool?

I think debate is good. Everyone has an opinion, and it's definitely healthy to voice those.

A good song can make you smile, or it can make you dance or laugh or remind you of a moment.

On my first album, I felt like, if it was going to be turned into a movie, it would have been directed by Sofia Coppola. She creates this kind of pastel-colored palette that's very whimsical but also very stagnant. And that's really how I heard the record.

Anyone that thinks 'pop' is a dirty word is living in the '90s.

I've always said that if I couldn't be myself, first I'd want to be Eminem and then a Disney kid.