Quotes from Ellie Goulding

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.

I want to be more like Pixie Lott. She works really hard but always manages to keep smiling. She never complains.

Christmas in L.A. is weird. There's no snow. It's not even cold.

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

America saw me as a projection of me that I always wanted. Thats why I love going to America so much. I feel like I started off in America exactly how I wanted to start everywhere.

You get to a certain age and you can't judge yourself on your dad or your parents.

The only day I remember of my parents' marriage was the day my dad walked out. As I stood there at five years old, with my older sister and younger brother, I knew that he was gone.

I couldn't really relate much to my younger sister, because she was born in 1992, and I was born in 1986. And then my older sister, we just didn't get on that much. Although we bonded over hating our stepdad.

'I Know You Care' is really personal and fragile for me. For me, it's about losing a family member and also about a breakup. It's about this idea of losing someone for good.

I still don't know if I can write songs. I don't think anyone ever knows if they can write songs.

I feel like I write songs for the future or something. Not in an arrogant way, but I feel like maybe my songs were, like, before their time or something.

'I Know You Care' is about my dad. And I haven't seen him for a long, long time. And my parents divorced when I was really young. And I guess I just wanted a - it was my way of saying that I wasn't bitter or angry anymore. I was just sad and just felt like something was missing.

One of the most powerful feelings in the world is after a really, really long run.

My favourite people to follow on Twitter are... my fans. They make me laugh so much and keep me smiling.

My fancy dress costume of choice is... something 1920s or 30s, when there was still so much elegance and attention to detail. An excuse for ultimate dressing-up indulgence.

I wrote 'Lights' a long, long time ago. And I expected it to be on the album, because it was - I wrote it with 'Biff' Stannard. And he wrote every single Spice Girls song and every single pop song of the 90s, basically. So I thought, you know, I was really lucky to work with him, but I didn't think it would be a big song for some reason.

I feel quite proud to be an ambassador for women who realize that being fit is better than being skinny.

I'm really proud of 'Bright Lights' because I was still in the mind frame of my first album when I was putting it together, but next time I want to display something different. I don't want to be as young, immature and all about boys!

I never thought that I could make a living out of my voice, to be completely honest. I thought that I could probably keep playing pubs. And it was exciting for me to get even just a pub gig in my town or country, when I went to university.

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.

The very first song I wrote was about a boy that I was obsessed with.

When I heard Bjork's debut, that was when I first realized that I could be a singer, even with my unusual voice.

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.

Drake, I'd like to collaborate with. He's a phenomenal lyricist. Probably the best rapper in the world at the moment. I love Kanye but there's something about Drake; he's more straight up, really clever and really poetic and metaphorical - I love that. He's just clever.