Ella Henderson quotes:

I look up to Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn and old styles. You will never see me in a crop top and hot pants - I'm more into dresses.

Dressing up and doing photo shoots was a side of the industry I really didn't think I would like. But now I've got a glam squad; I love trying on new outfits and experimenting with different looks.

I just love mermaids. I was a mermaid in my past life. I just feel it when I go in the sea. I just feel a connection there between me, and the water, and the fish - they speak to me - and the shells - they ring out to me.

As long as it's making you happy and you're enjoying it, then you should never stop writing music. Whether it's going to take you somewhere, viewed by other people, or it's literally you in a bedroom at home, it should be something that you do for yourself.

I have never been in a serious relationship and never had a break-up, so I can't tug on my heartstrings that way. But whenever I experience a strong emotion in life, I definitely have to throw myself into my songwriting. It is very therapeutic.

There's always been a piano around the house, and I've grown up around it. It's a massive part of my life and always has been.

I'm not a fussy eater, but when I'm travelling, I try to stick to the same regime and just have my chicken and my mash and broccoli. Otherwise, you start eating all these funny delicacies, and it makes your tummy turn upside down.

For me writing is that place where I can escape; it's where I let my thoughts run wild.

It sounds a bit sad, but my new hobby is knitting. I love it. I find it really relaxing.

It's amazing when I do a gig how many people of different ages come up to me afterwards and chat to me about songs. The emotions I feel are what any person can relate to. Sometimes I'm just a narrator.

As long as I give the best performance I can give, I know I can't do any more.

My grandfather was a massive influence in my music. Growing up, he would play a lot of old-school records to me. A lot of jazz and swing music, actually, growing up.

I often do crazy siren noises, or, like, a high-pitched dolphin, just to make sure that all my range is there. I make random noise and blurt out random sounds, to make sure I get rid of any bad nerves. I want to make sure to feel as confident as possible.

I like to say I believe in ghosts so I don't get haunted by one.

I love snow; I love building snowman. The only thing I don't like is the cold - so if we could have a hot Christmas, that would be amazing.

A fan sent me a pair of fluffy winter socks, and I was like, 'Oh, that's cool. I'll wear them to bed. It's cold; it's winter.' But they were worn. They were black underneath, and they stunk, and I hate feet. She was like, 'I'm giving you my favorite pair.'

My plan was always to leave school and live in a flat with some friends, have a 9 to 5 job, and try to get as many gigs as I could. I wanted to keep writing and then eventually, in my twenties, head to a record label and hope they'd sit down and listen to my book of songs, sign me as a songwriter and maybe an artist in development.

Create a vision that makes you wanna jump out of bed in the morning.

Each time that I think you go, I turn around and you're creeping in.

I think I was a mermaid and I used to swim the shores or Hawaii and used to pop up and see coconuts and pineapples everywhere.

Most of the time I write my best songs just from feeling a strong emotion, so whether I'm just really angry or really sad or really happy, I immediately sit down at a piano and I begin writing a song.

I knew from the start that I wanted my life to be about music. I taught myself the notes of the piano aged three, and then I spent the next few years deconstructing chords to figure out how to play them. At 11, I researched online the sort of music school I wanted to attend, printed out the details, and handed them to my parents.

I love hiking to the top of mountains in L.A. and seeing incredible landscapes. It really inspires me.

When I heard 'Back to Black' from Amy Winehouse, I was, like, 'Wow.' To hear such a soulful voice that feels like it's from a different era, I mean, it felt so fresh and unique, and that was something that opened my eyes and made me believe that it's not always about churning out the same thing in this industry.

I always say that when it comes to picking a single, firstly you have to go with what feels right and what your gut tells you.

If I feel like I've completely drained every ounce of energy out of me for this song, and I can't go any further with it, then I stop, even if the song is unfinished. Most of the time, when it's finished, it's because I've used every ounce of me to write it.

I'm not very much an open book, I do really express myself only through my music and when I'm in that safe environment and I don't have to let anything go out of the studios that I don't want to go out.

From an early age I've written songs and played the piano.

I knew what I didn't want, and I knew whatever it was going to be it had to be believable and it had to come from me and I had to drive it. The way I write is very honest and when I think of the music that I listened to growing up, I loved it because I believed it.

I had to introduce a lot of people into my writing environment which I thought at first I would find really difficult, but I actually found that I loved it. It meant that I was meeting different people; it meant that I was expressing myself in different ways.

By the time I was ten or eleven, I had a song-book and I was writing everything down. It used to just be my hobby but now it's like my diary, it's where I can go in my own little bubble.

I was teaching myself notes from three and then by seven I'd figured out how to play some chords, and at school I used to love writing poems and poetry, so I guess I kind of put two and two together and that formed my songwriting from an early age.

To do a world tour with my album, that would be really incredible. I love travelling, and I love travelling through my music.

I just love making sounds. Anything that made a sound, as a kid I was just taken back by and would sit with it for ages and just try and make all different sounds on it.

There was always a piano around the house and I've got other brothers and sisters but I'm the youngest, and none of them ever wanted to play it. So I guess I was the only one that was gonna end up playing it, if it was one of us.

I guess my biggest influence was actually my Grandfather. He used to play old records on vinyl, and would play old jazz and soul music like Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and The Rat Pack and swing music.

When I do my vocal warm-ups everyone calls me the dolphin because I do stupid siren noises.

I think a lot of people assume from my music and stuff I'm constantly talking about deep and meaningful things, but then with my friends I'm just a class clown.

I started playing the piano from the age of three and I started teaching myself; we always had a piano round the house.

I love reggae music; reggae music's like my go-to.

Reggae music really chills me out in my dressing-room before I head on stage.

I WAS a mermaid in my past-life! I definitely was. I don't know why I'm obsessed with them that much, which is why I think that somehow in my past-life I must have just lived underwater or something. Maybe I was a fish or a dolphin, but I do believe in mermaids.

The simple questions are always the hardest ones.

I always feel like when I've listened to a great song I know it, 'cuz it's the only time I'll ever get goosebumps or something like that.

I think there's thousands of good songs in the world - the songs that we can all sing along to, songs that are just so catchy they end up being in your head. But I think a great song is something that emotionally engages with you and connects with you.

I think we've all got a mirror man in our life - male, female, it's someone who love themselves before they can love anyone else.

My parents brought me up on all different styles of music, like my Mum would listen to Motown R&B and my Dad was quite 80's driven, so I was always surrounded by music growing up.

I just used to love the sound of especially a female vocal like Ella Fitzgerald for example, it's just that empowering self-control that can make a whole room go silent. I fell in love with that sound.

I definitely love music that's coming out now, there's some really exciting fresh artists coming through which is really cool. I guess it's from old and new, where my influences are based.

A piano in the house, when I came home from school and was able to play all these different notes with all theses different sounds, I really found that fascinating.