Florence Welch Quotes

"You should have high expectations for yourself and others should come second."

"I like the idea of taking off like a bird."

"I have this sensation of being in flight all the time, but being on stage is like creating a sanctuary in which you can completely lose yourself. The bits of your personality that you keep under wraps in ordinary life, you can let them run free."

"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 think I just get excited by music, and, like, singing is a very physical thing. It releases endorphins in your body. You're using almost muscle in there, and I think that adrenaline really helps to kind of make the songs fresh every time."

"I've built my wardrobe color palette around red, so I'm happy with it, but I do get pangs when I see beautiful brunettes. I've already been blue, green, black, and blonde."

"Music to me is so internal. It's physical and it's emotional. Whereas fashion is so much about the external that it's almost like a break. It's not inner turmoil. It's total escapism."

"I can't wait to get on stage, because there you don't worry about whether you'll ever get married because your life is insane, or whether you'll ever have another boyfriend again, you don't worry about the typical boundaries of how your life has to be."

"I dyed my hair red when I was ten and when I was 11 - in my goth period - I dyed it black and I was really into witchcraft. I made mini shrines in my bedroom with candles and tried to cast spells to make the boy in the next class fall in love with me. I don't think he did."

"I think music should be scary. Music is an exorcism."

"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 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."

"Music can tear me up inside."

"I used to dress like an eight-year-old boy. Traveling has inspired me to be more experimental."

"I started off singing in church as a child. The sound of voices coming together, that was my first moment of touching something outside of myself."

"I've got my ideal job. I like to sing, I like to dance, I like to bang drums and dress up, and someone pays me - it's incredible."

"I'm a choir girl gone horribly, desperately wrong."

"You know, people always ask, 'What are you like offstage?' And I always say, 'Well, I'm completely normal and mellow.'"

"On stage, you can use your emotions. It's the place where you can channel them. They have a purpose."

"What I really like seeing from the stage is people having their own moments, when people are doing some performance of their own."

"I love performing outside because it's as if the heavens are open and the elements become part of the stage show as well - you know, the wind and the rain and the thunder. It's almost as if there's a sense of invocation in performance."

"I saw 'The Artist.' It's really beautiful and it's all done to the letter with all the silent film techniques. The costumes were amazing and the dog is so good."

"I get in fights with my sister all the time. She comes on the road with me and we fight - like sisters do."

"I've always been able to just concoct a melody quite easily - it's just kind of instinct, really. You've got to channel your subconscious."

"I've just never been a tracksuit-wearer."

"I'm quite glad I never learned to play the guitar, because I think I'd write songs that were more classically structured. As it is, I've had to create my own way of writing, which isn't typical. Everything's a big crescendo."

"I'd experimented with so many different types of music. I had these folky songs I'd written and recorded, but something wasn't quite right."

"Touring, and being in a band, it's almost like the other stuff, the other parts of life, get put on hold."

"I am obsessed with the whole Victoriana thing, the whole Jack the Ripper London era, the grayness of it, the haunted feeling of it, all ancient and bloody."

"Music is my way out. I keep things locked up and never say anything. I guess in order to say something to one person, I have to sing it to a couple of thousand. It doesn't make for healthy relationships."