Florence Welch

"The aesthetic came along the way, I think - just through experimenting, and going on tour, and trying stuff out on stage, having fun with it, and not taking it too seriously. If I had a ballgown at home, I'd wear it onstage. If I found something in a charity shop, I'd wear it. That's where it grew from - just wanting to play dress-up."

"There's such an extreme feeling to be in love, especially in quite an emotionally destructive relationship, where you're both kind of really bad for each other, but you love each other so much. Those extreme emotions, I think, can only be described with extreme imagery."

"I've always been attracted to romantic secondhand clothes. But my style developed as I started going to these strange raves where everybody had these very definitive costumes."

"I'm a light sleeper. I've never been one of those people who can put their head down and suddenly everything disappears. Nighttime is the time I get most scared, anxious or worried. In those darker moments before waking or sleeping is when I feel most, I don't know, I can turn on myself, and my imagination can take me dark places."

"It would be too frightening for me to consider myself a role model. But I like the idea of not being afraid of letting your imagination rule you, to feel the freedom of expression, to let creativity be your overwhelming drive rather than other things."

"I've got quite a vivid imagination and I'm easily overwhelmed by sensations and things that are beautiful or scary. I don't think I've ever seen a ghost - I think I'm probably haunted by my own ghosts than real ones."

"The Teenage Cancer Trust does incredible work supporting and caring for teenagers and young adults with cancer, and it's a cause that is really close to me and my family."

"I've always been a bit of a decorator. I think if I wasn't a singer I'd probably be in stage setting or interior design or something. I like clutter and I'm quite visually greedy. I can't have things to be plain I have to have things looking interesting... maybe I'm just a frustrated interior designer stuck in a singing career."

"My siblings and I were friends with the boys who would become our stepbrothers - we grew up on the same street. I feel very special to have these amazing people in my life and if we hadn't all moved into this big house together I think I would have missed out on that, because we would have drifted apart."

"I try to write lyrics so that they won't age, which sort of leaves you with the big subjects like death and love and sex and violence."

"I've got some incredible fans actually - so loyal and they make me birthday cards and Christmas cards. I got this package of poems and artwork based around the songs. They've got this thing called 'Floetry' where they all have to put in artwork. They've set up their own competitions and stuff which is kind of amazing."

"Then I heard your voice as clear as day, And you told me I should concentrate, It was all so strange, And so surreal, That a ghost should be so practical. Only if for a night And the only solution was to stand and fight, And my body was bruised and I was set alight, But you came over me like some holy rite, And although I was burning, You're the only light Only if for a night"

"Hands up if you’re ready to do something you’ll regret this weekend. Go forth! You have my blessing."

"You took my heart and you held it in your mouth And, with a word all my love came rushing out And, every whisper, it's the worst, emptied out by a single word There is a hollow in me now... And Every whisper, every sigh Eats away at this heart of mine And there is a hollow in me now. So I put my faith in something unknown I'm living on such sweet nothing But I'm trying to hope with nothing to hold I'm living on such sweet nothing."

"A falling star fell from your heart and landed in my eyes. I screamed aloud, as it tore through them, and now it's left me blind. The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out. You left me in the dark. No dawn, no day, I'm always in this twilight. In the shadow of your heart. And in the dark, I can hear your heartbeat. I tried to find the sound. But then it stopped, and I was in the darkness,So darkness I became. I took the stars from my eyes, and then I made a map. And knew that somehow I could find my way back. Then I heard your heart beating, you were in the darkness too. So I stayed in the darkness with you."

"For someone so conflicted, who am I to give advice to anybody? It’s such a funny, grandiose idea"