AVRIL LAVIGNE

I don't want to have kids for like 10 years. I still have a lot to do. I don't even know if I could handle a dog right now. I'm so not ready. Someday I'll be a mom but not until I'm in my 30s.

To understand me, you have to meet me and be around me. And then only if I'm in a good mood - don't meet me in a bad mood.

We have parties at my house. My girlfriends and I play our iPods, with all of our favorite songs. We pick our songs and jump up on the counter and dance, and do runway stuff, and we take video with my camera. When I'm with my girlfriends, I act like I'm 19.

I was eating bad stuff. Lots of sugar and carbs, junk food all the time. It makes you very irritated.

Inspiration for my music just comes from, you know, my life experiences.

On my first album I was wearing a lot of guys pants, baggy clothes and stuff like that. I was 17 and I was a little tomboy. And you would never see me wearing a dress or heels on my first record.

Why should I care what other people think of me? I am who I am. And who I wanna be.

My songs aren't bubble gum pop dance songs and I don't have background dancers on every single song.

It's so different now coming out as a new artist today than it was when I came out almost ten years ago. Now, it's all about singles, it's really quick, it's online. I came out when people sold records and they still do today but - I don't know what the key is.

You can't complain about the pressures, the paparazzi, the madness. Because that is the job. I've always understood that's the deal.

I don't believe war is a way to solve problems. I think it's wrong. I don't have respect for the people that made the decisions to go on with war. I don't have that much respect for Bush. He's about war, I'm not about war - a lot of people aren't about war.

I created Punk for this day and age. Do you see Britney walking around wearing ties and singing punk? Hell no. That's what I do. I'm like a Sid Vicious for a new generation.

I have to fight to keep my image really me... I rejected some gorgeous publicity shots because they just didn't look like me.

I have always looked for ways to give back because I think it's a responsibility we all share.

I don't fight. I don't believe in it.

I was signed by L.A. Reid on Arista Records when I was 16. He understood me and believed in me. Arista folded and I got put on RCA or whatever, then there were new people there, and every six months it changes and more new people come in.

I started singing in church and I was probably around seven and I started singing anywhere that I could. I used to sing at my school. I was in musicals and then it kind of got to a point where I started to - wanted to do my own songs.

I think I would probably die without my eyeliner, but besides that I'm pretty basic.

You get built up and put on a pedestal and then people want to bring you down. It can be hurtful. Some people try to make me look bad or not a nice person but it's completely false.

I liked being a minor because you can't get into trouble. Now I just have to try and behave myself.

I decorated my house like a medieval gothic castle, European-style. Chandeliers and red velvet curtains. My bedroom is pink and black, my bathroom is totally Hello Kitty, I have a massive pink couch and a big antique gold cross.

I'm the kind of person who always likes to be doing something.

Life is like a roller coaster, live it, be happy, enjoy life.

I'm very comfortable with how I look. I always have been. I think I look pretty good. There's nothing I want to change. I'm pretty happy with what I've got.

The mall tour was right off of my second record, before it came out. It was very different. I did an acoustic performance every day in a different mall! One interesting thing I remember is playing 'My Happy Ending' a lot, and that song was so new that I remember getting emotional.