Quotes from Aldous Harding

With some things, it's not that I like doing them; it's more that I like having done them. I like to look back and see that I've made a nice thing.

My head is full of songs I'm writing now, and things I am thinking now. I'm not very good at drawing on things that have happened, things I think might happen, or things I want to happen. I'm very much in right now.

I don't really like to talk about what my songs are about.

I've got a bad rap for not being more charismatic between songs.

You should see my stepdad's face when he's lifting something. It's the scariest thing I've ever seen! So you can't expect, just because I'm a potentially pretty person, that I won't allow myself to try out emotional states that might make me look ugly to some people.

I am so much like my mother. When we're in a room together everybody always comments on how spooky it is. I would say I get most of the musicality from my mum - and my dad, but I think my dad is the poet, you know.

You know, we've had some pretty rough festival stages.

In my mind, I was never going to have the things I wanted if I played music for a living, unless I became a rock star.

I don't think about why I do what I do, or why I started doing what I do, because I'm so obsessed with doing it right now, and what it means to me right now.

I'm one of those people who's always changing. There's nothing wrong with it but it means I am a hard person to hold onto, I guess.

I really do feel like an unremarkable person trying really hard, openly, to do something interesting and to make something of value and pleasure.

Just like using an instrument, a song calls for different things.

When I was making my first record, I think I felt slightly trapped by my mind and my genre. I think in one way, that archaic language I was using came from a kind of mild obsession with the devil.

Probably when I was about 16 or 17 I started writing. I wouldn't call it poetry, even though I've referred to it as poetry a couple times. But I don't think that's right. It was more scribblings and stream of consciousness.

I've always been, like a lot of people, driven by fear. Always focusing on the fire on the rope, as opposed to what the rope is coming from.

I know exactly what my songs are about and I try not to tell people, because a friend of mine really loves 'Stop Your Tears' and I made the mistake of telling her what it's about one day. Now she has to distract herself and look elsewhere when I sing the last verse about being at the river with the baby, because she knows too much.

I'm optimistic but I'm also not stupid.

I think people are particularly interested to see who the real me is, but... different stories call for different approaches and you change based on the experience you want that person to have.

We all want the same thing, love and acceptance. That's pretty much it. And what I've learned is that unless I'm happy with my side of the nickel, it can change violently - quickly.