I'm an advocate of 'it's not what you are, it's who you are.'
Sia
My goal is to give girls and boys a different idea of expression. It's not always about looking pretty or cute. It's about expressing yourself however that may be, even if that's being silly or goofy or weird.
We all need to stand together and be a part of creating the future we hope to see.
Melody is pure intuition. I don't use any thinking brain when I do that. That's totally in the zone.
I started dating JD Samson from Le Tigre, and suddenly I was listening to more up-tempo music and old dance music, like ESG and Gang of Four, and I thought, 'Wow. This is fun.'
I don't care what people think of me, unless they think I'm mean or something, but I don't care if they think I'm like someone else because I know I'm not - I'm a total weirdo. I'm not selling a dream; I'm not selling fame like it is some sort of fantastic thing. I'm just trying to sell music and get on with my real life.
The weirder the better for me.
When you have a lot of people telling you what you are and perceiving you in a certain way, it's difficult to find your own identity.
The truth is that you shouldn't match your insides to other people's outsides. Life is an inside job, and we just have to do our best.
I'm allowed to maintain some modicum of privacy. But also, I would like not to be picked apart or for people to observe when I put on 10 pounds or take off 10 pounds, or I have a hair extension out of place, or my fake tan is botched.
I'm sensitive and get easily upset and insulted.
I don't want to be famous or recognizable. I don't want to be critiqued about the way that I look on the Internet... I've been writing pop songs for pop stars for a couple years and see what their lives are like, and that's just not something I want.
If Amy Winehouse was a beehive, then I guess I'm a blonde bob.
So where a lot of people will spend three weeks on one song, I will write 10 in three weeks. Maybe the song that they sculpt is going to be as successful as just one of the 10 that I wrote.
There's this image of us on the red carpet, being really fancy, and then there's the reality.
As a person, I'm a good person who shows up for my friends. I do my best to be good. As an artist, I have no idea.
I have so much to thank reality TV for.
I have never made money selling records. I have never really made money touring, either, or with merchandise, surprisingly. But I do make money by just having my songs in the background of television shows or in commercials or movie trailers. That's been really good.
The 'victim to victory' theory is that, if you listen to the radio, a large percentage of the hits are... about victim to victory, like, 'I'm having a terrible time.' And then the pre-chorus is, 'I don't know what's gonna happen next.' And the chorus is, 'Now I'm brilliant, and everything is great, because something happened to make it great.'
I really felt like 'Chandelier' was a big pop song. But we weren't sure what would happen if I wasn't willing to show my face and do promo and go on tour and do the traditional kind of pop strategy. So I had no expectations.
Fame is the worst thing that can happen to a person. I choose not to appear in anything publicly. Twitter's it!
I got a little bit famous. I didn't like it.
I don't read reviews or interviews or anything, just because I'm afraid; If I believed the good, then I'd believe the bad, and there will be bad.
In my sobriety, I have discovered that the people I love, and who hurt me, were sick like me.
I get to sit at home with the dogs on the sofa, record in a closet in the office, send them off and, if I'm lucky, make a million dollars.
I don't need to be rich anymore; I don't need to be a millionaire.
I don't really even go out that much now, except to walk my dogs, because I don't want to be recognised. I used to be a really friendly person, and now I just want to be invisible. I liked myself much more before I got famous. I was much friendlier and had more energy.
When I was 21, I went to London and lived there for eight years.
People aren't honest about the horrors of fame. The downsides are so overwhelming that, for me, there is no payoff.
That would really be my fantasy - maybe just do three shows a year and each year in a different city, just singing for the people who really want to see it, and then just write for other people. I do love to sing, but I'm just as happy singing in the bathtub, you know?
'Chandelier' took, like, four minutes to write the chords, then, like, 12-15 minutes to write the lyrics. Probably 10 or 15 minutes to cut the vocals.
I don't go to shows because I just want to listen to the music performed live. I want to get to know the person who's performing it. Or I want to, like, take away a sense that I had an experience that nobody else is going to have again, or a unique experience for that moment.
Married life is awesome.
I liked myself much more before I got famous. I was much friendlier and had more energy.
If anyone besides famous people knew what it was like to be a famous person, they would never want to be famous.
That's the thing about awards - it's for the people who do all the hard work behind the scenes. An award is just a clap at them.
I'd had a relationship with a woman when I was 20, but nobody cared then. As it came out at the same time as my fame, I started to have panic attacks.
I love hip hop, and I have a bunch of urban songs I write for fun that I can't put on my albums because people would laugh and point.
When I was outed by Perez Hilton as bisexual, I suddenly started being asked personal questions, which was really difficult.
The melody will tell me what the song should be about, the tone of the song. That's when the intellect comes in. Because I have a list of possible titles and concepts, and I expand on that.
I have social anxiety. It's easier up on stage because there's security in being there. When I'm off stage I'm trying not to be a manic freak. I'm quite shy.
I thought I was going to be an actor. I liked entertaining. I was pretty much tap dancing for attention from a very early age. My family was kind of musical, and there were people in the circus next door and actors across the road. I just enjoyed messing around with music growing up, but I really thought I was going to be an actor.
I love to dance. I have always been the first on the dance floor, but I'm not teachable. I couldn't learn 'five, six, seven, eight' if my life depended on it.
That's why 'Chandelier' was interesting to me... I wrote the song because there's so many party-girl anthems in pop. And I thought it'd be interesting to do a different take on that.
I'm just completely obsessed with Die Antwoord.
I used to be addicted to 'Reader's Digest' growing up. I would read the stories about love, and I guess that's where I became a hopeless romantic. I draw from that a lot.
I had hundreds of thousands of dollars of tax penalties.
I don't want to be followed by paparazzi; that terrifies me.
'Titanium' wasn't supposed to be me singing, but they put my demo vocal back on.
I'm never going to sing the words, 'I want to shut down the club,' never, ever.
