XCX: "I want to create an experience with my music."

XCX: "Every time I make another record and every time I get a year older, I become more and more confident in who I am and more in tune with what I want as a person. I think it's the same for anyone in any walk of life. You just grow with experience and become more confident in exploring new things."

XCX: "I used to worry about being cool. Now I realize that I genuinely don't care."

XCX: "I am very spontaneous when I write; it kind of just comes out. I never think about what I'm going to write about first... it just sort of comes out like word vomit."

XCX: "I've never conformed to what my record label has said and, yes, that has meant that it's been a long journey for me."

XCX: "I'm not good at being a picture-perfect pop star, happy all the time. If I'm having a bad day, I can't pretend. I'm always a bit unhappy, but that's just me. I like dwelling in my sadness."

XCX: "I feel like I can be six different people in one day sometimes. Which is fun but also really strange in my own brain."

XCX: "Females should stand by each other, especially in an industry which seems to try so hard to pin us up against each other and make us fight. It's not about that for me. I refuse to be sucked into a twisted world of insecurity and lose who I am."

XCX: "Live in the moment. Feel everything you want to feel. And maybe have a couple of drinks if you're nervous, I guess."

XCX: "I think it's awesome when a woman is in control of everything she's doing, especially in an industry like this where people think that doesn't happen often, but it really does - well, from my knowledge and how I manage my own project."

XCX: "There's something about girls together, uniting, that I just thought was cool."

XCX: "I'm going to build an empire. I'm always writing for someone else. I want to be someone who has her fingerprints all over the pop charts."

XCX: "I'm just not very good at being happy all the time."

XCX: "One thing I don't understand is how people want you to replicate your past successes. Being an artist should be about freedom and not just becoming one thing, because I think that's terrible and boring."

XCX: "I'm not interested in the idea of celebrity."

XCX: "I want my music, whether it's sung by other people or sung by myself, to affect the way the Top 40 radio sounds. I want to heavily influence it with things that have come directly from my brain."

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

XCX: "For me, romance is only 'true' when there are two sides to it. I think to have true romance you have to have the moments where you feel alone and you're crying and you feel like your heart's about to break... as well as the moments where you're floating through this orgasmic dream state."

XCX: "I don't want to sell my soul or anything, but to go on a huge tour would be next level."

XCX: "Just be funny. Funny always goes over well, so try to think of something funny to break the ice rather than being weird or using pickup lines."

XCX: "If you're in control of everything, then no matter what it is, you can make that feminine."

XCX: "I just feel like the songs I write lend themselves to this girl-power feeling, and those are the artists that I looked up to when I was younger."

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

XCX: "When I first started, I wasn't really aware of anything in the industry or aware of who I really was. I just put my music out there and tried to get as many people to hear it as possible."

XCX: "You should respect the people you are around."

XCX: "To be honest, for me, my main workout is when I'm on stage. Even though I make pop music, I don't think I perform in the classic 'pop star' sort of way. I'm very active on stage; I always end up dripping in sweat afterwards. It's always like a full-on, wild performance, so that's pretty much like my exercise, I would say."

XCX: "A great song can make you cry and transport you to another dimension."

XCX: "I started writing my own things when I was about 8. I used to try to bully my friends into imitating the Spice Girls on the playground. Then I realized, Oh god, my career's going nowhere, so I looked in the Yellow Pages and phoned up the first cheap studio that I found and started recording."

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

XCX: "I actually think it doesn't even matter what age you are or what sex - though that does play into it sometimes - you always have to fight in any kind of creative world because nobody knows your own brain and your own creative ideas better than you do."

XCX: "All my favourite pop songs are the most stupid ones, the ones that are the most obvious."

XCX: "There are some signs that can indicate she might be interested. Woman might do subconscious things like play with their hair or orient their body towards your direction."

XCX: "I think true romance is dry schizophrenic... but life would be so boring without true love, so I guess you just roll with it."

XCX: "I know some people are like 'I'm depressed and I'm a struggling artist' and that really works for some people, but that doesn't work for me. I have to be really happy, even when I'm writing my depressing songs; I have to come through that stage before I can write. I have to be in a good place. I'm a positive person."

XCX: "I have a dark side. I think everyone does."