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

Marling: "I've been quite fascinated by the relative insignificance of human existence, the shortness of life. We might as well be a letter in a word in a sentence on a page in a book in a library in a city in one country in this enormous universe! And that kind of fear and insignificance has kept me awake at night."

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

Marling: "I know there are lots of positives in the evolution of technology, but I also think it will be responsible for the end of a unique character, of a specific kind of geographical culture. The world is getting so small, and mass production is getting so big. Everything is in danger of becoming the same."

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

Marling: "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."

Marling: "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."

Marling: "I'm reluctantly interested in love and helplessly interested in logic and yet they're so conflicting. And they're both necessary for a happy balance, a happy existence... I think."

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

Marling: "I'm not religious, I'm not romantic and I live purely by logic. I make every decision by logic and sometimes that leads me to the right and sometimes to the wrong decision."

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

Marling: "People don't appreciate music any more. They don't adore it. They don't buy vinyl and just love it. They love their laptops like their best friend, but they don't love a record for its sound quality and its artwork."

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

Marling: "There's huge amounts of nonsense that goes with everything surrounding music and art. All the things you have to do promote yourself - there's huge amounts of nonsense."

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

Marling: "I feel increasingly like age is very irrelevant. Quite often, cynicism is confused with wisdom, and my scorn is confused with a knowing, which I don't have."

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

Marling: "I've noticed that, with many of the authors I like, I tend to think I would dislike them as human beings or that there'd be a healthy amount of debate if I ever did meet them."

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

Marling: "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."

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

Marling: "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."

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

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