Halsey

“I love films that show people in a way that's so real it's almost unsettling, and that's what really inspires me because I write about people. I write about people that I know, so I want to portray them and portray myself in a way that is unapologetic.”

“I'm not going to present myself one way all the time just because it will make me sell best.”

“I like writing about places, about people and environments. When I create a world, it lets me go in and define the details of that world.”

“I didn't even realize I was writing songs - I thought I was just being witty and sarcastic.”

“Being a musician, people ask you a lot about what musicians inspire you, and there's plenty of musicians that I love and respect, but I think that I'm the most inspired by cinema.”

“I was doing some YouTube covers, and I had a decently popular blog on Tumblr.”

“The environment around you shapes who you are. How you handle an emergency or how you react when someone is rude to you, that's you.”

“You can expect nothing in being a musician, and you have to be just very thankful every time it goes positively for you.”

“Most artists, their 60th show was in front of no one. My first show was in front of 1,200 people.”

“So many people are concerned with being the perfect 'something.' Whether it's the perfect singer, the perfect sexy girl, or the perfect feminist. I don't want to be the perfect anything.”

“I consider myself someone who takes a lot of beauty risks, and I've realized what I liar I am. I change my hair a lot, from blue to blonde to bald, but I'm trying to branch out a little more with makeup.”

“Being a pop-leaning, female artist, you'd think that I'd have my record company breathing down my neck and trying to control everything I'm doing. Actually, they've just kind of let me take the wheel.”

“My first album was called 'Badlands,' and it's something that I think I'm most proud of having done in my life.”

“My EP, 'Room 93,' was all about isolation - it was based on the idea of being in a hotel room and being totally alone with yourself or that other person.”

“I feel like, if I'm going to have young, impressionable people listening to my music, then I'm going to respect that.”

“At the end of the day, every decision I make about my music is about creating a collective.”

“I had a crazy life for a teenager. I lived in New Jersey, but I'd go to Vermont for three weeks, join a commune, take pictures with the guy I was dating, come back home, and post photos.”

“I end up pleading my case to alternative programmers - you're telling me that my music is too dark for pop, too pop for alternative, and urban radio won't touch it - so we have a record that doesn't fit in. And what is more alternative than that?”

“I'm 21 years old, and it's kind of uncomfortable for me to talk about, but I'm in the 1 percent as far as my income and tax bracket. But now that I'm here, there's no amount of money you can wave in front of my face that will make me understand depriving people of human rights.”

“When you're a teenage girl, a lot of being pretty has to do with your hair.”