Katy Perry

I came from a different mind-set growing up, and my mind has changed.

Not to sound overly cheesy but I really appreciate the freedom we have in America - especially as a female.

At my second record label, they told me and other female artists that some of us were going on the chopping block. I was 19... and it was devastating.

I'm really critical of my posture, it makes a big difference. And I try to suck my belly in. Everyone should do that whether you're on a red carpet or not. Even if you're just going out to dinner with your boyfriend you should try and suck it in.

I'm on this extraordinary adventure, and if I have no one to talk to at the end of the night, I feel lonely.

My singing is really important to me, but when children come along they'll be my main focus. I'd never put my career in front of my babies - it'd be a case of fitting jobs around them.

I have a lot of ambition.

For a modern woman it is important to be supported and that there is equality in every aspect, and that it's not two halves that make a whole - it's two wholes that make a whole.

I got this Jesus tattoo on my wrist when I was 18 because I know that it's always going to be a part of me. When I'm playing, it's staring right back at me, saying, 'Remember where you came from.'

I think that parents grow up with an idea of what they want their kids to be like - and then their kids grow up to be people of themselves, of their own.

I really like to look like a history book. I can look 1940s, I can look 1970s hippie-chic, or sometimes I'll pull that '80s Brooklyn hip-hop kid with the door-knocker earrings.

Everyone related to me in my circle was from church: church friends, church school, church activities. All my friends weren't allowed to watch MTV or go to PG-13 movies or listen to the radio, so I didn't really know anything different. That's how I was raised.