MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS

I feel weird without lipstick. Even after the first time I wore a really neon pink or a really bright red, I felt really strange without it there. My lips are a main feature, so I feel naked without them.

Even when I see a beautiful woman, I think, 'Aw, her life must be amazing.' Everyone does it. That's human nature to believe that beauty is everything.

I do have a memo all the time because I need to be guided by something in my life. I'm not religious and I don't have idols, so something has to drive me.

If you're making too many excuses for someone, agonising over them in a way which takes up all your waking thoughts and feel so nervous around them you could be sick, then they are probably the wrong person.

When you are with the wrong person, who doesn't really love you, all you want is to be adored. It makes you more inward and needy. Gross.

Touring can be tough; the crew and I travel everywhere by a big pink bus, and live in petrol stations.

Obviously when you're a teen you have no money, so you make, like, three outfits out of one dress. You're like, 'OK cut the arms here. Alright: New party, cut them to here.'

I love pop music because you can really see what's currently happening in society.

I really do want people to listen to the music more than watch what I wear. There's time for that later. I've got the rest of my life to dress up and look nice.

I didn't even listen to any music until I was 19, really. I just wanted to be famous. But I didn't say it to anyone because I was really embarrassed at the thought.

I felt connected with Madonna from a very young age. I think I share a lot of qualities from her personality. I really respect her.

Britney Spears is a big influence. Huge. I think people thought I was joking about that for a long time. But when I was a teenager, there was a genuine connection with this sweet girl who also had this very sexual side that people didn't really want to accept.

Everybody is different. Some people like to share more. I just wouldn't want to spoil someone's opinion of me by them knowing me as a person instead of an artist.

I don't just want to sing about simplistic things all the time. It's good to have a mix of songs that have a real depth, and that provoke and challenge people, and then songs that are fun and people can enjoy.

Actually, I think that a lot of the interviews and acoustic sessions and other things that artists fill their time with are really pointless and suck the energy out of the artist.

I've always been interested in how fast-moving our identity is and that I've never been able to pin down who I truly am. That inspires me to write, because I feel like that cements me a bit, in that I find my identity in being an artist.

I was always very creative. I was always into acting and dancing when I was younger.

I actually quite like promo, which is quite odd for an artist, but recording's not the easiest thing.

I am absolutely not a roll-on-stage kind of girl! I would be totally freaked out if I didn't warm up, and I don't know how other singers do it.

Nobody will admit to playing power games in relationships, but they do.

My style icons are Leigh Lezark, Gwen Stefani and Shirley Manson.

My dad's quite a conservative person, and he brought me up to be very questioning of the commercial world. He looked down on pop culture. I definitely got the impression that pop was evil and that Britney Spears was evil.

You have to be your biggest believer.

I want to provoke people with thoughts, not by taking my clothes off. It's time to move on from Stripperville.

There's no one particular road that will lead you to success. I think everybody will find it differently.