Taylor Swift Explains How Jay Z Helped Her Become Friends With Kanye West
Taylor Swift graces the cover of Vanity Fair's September issue. When the singer wasn't posing for sexy snaps — and proving she's worthy of her spot on the publication's international best dressed list — pop's new princess chatted about everything from her new friendship with Kanye West to why she admires Oprah Winfrey and Angelina Jolie. Taylor also opened up about the link between her boyfriends and girlfriends and what she needs in a man, cluing us in on why her adorable relationship with Calvin Harris works. Read on for Taylor's best quotes from her new interview, then check out video from the shoot.
- On why there's no drama in her group of girlfriends: "That doesn't happen. We even have girls in our group who have dated the same people. It's almost like the sisterhood has such a higher place on the list of priorities for us. It's so much more important than some guy that it didn't work out with. When you've got this group of girls who need each other as much as we need each other, in this climate, when it's so hard for women to be understood and portrayed the right way in the media . . . now more than ever we need to be good and kind to each other and not judge each other — and just because you have the same taste in men, we don't hold that against each other."
- On how Jay Z helped her become friends with Kanye West: "I feel like I wasn't ready to be friends with him until I felt like he had some sort of respect for me, and he wasn't ready to be friends with me until he had some sort of respect for me — so it was the same issue, and we both reached the same place at the same time. I became friends with Jay Z, and I think it was important, for Jay Z, for Kanye, and I to get along. It started with both of us really liking Jay and wanting him to be happy. And then Kanye and I both reached a place where he would say really nice things about my music and what I've accomplished, and I could ask him how his kid's doing."
- On why she would like to emulate Oprah Winfrey's and Angelina Jolie's careers in the years to come: "If you look at Oprah, she's made so many people happy over the years. She's made so much money, but she's given so much of it away. Same thing with Angelina Jolie. She's been so productive, but she's used that position to better other people's lives, and I think that's where I'd want to be. I want to leave a trail of people behind me who had gotten better opportunities or felt better about themselves because of me or smiled because of me."
- On knowing that she could only date someone who didn't want to change her: "That was the way that I decided to go on with my life. Not looking for anything, not necessarily being open to anything, and only being open to the idea that, if I found someone who would never try to change me, that would be the only person I could fall in love with. Because, you know, I was in love with my life."
- On her open letter about Apple Music: "I wrote the letter at around four a.m.," she says. "The contracts had just gone out to my friends, and one of them sent me a screenshot of one of them. I read the term 'zero percent compensation to rights holders.' Sometimes I'll wake up in the middle of the night and I'll write a song and I can't sleep until I finish it, and it was like that with the letter." Swift showed the letter to one person before posting it: "I read it to my mom," Swift says. "She's always going to be the one. I just said, 'I'm really scared of this letter, but I had to write it. I might not post it, but I had to say it.' "
- On how Apple and Spotify reacted to her thoughts on streaming services: "Apple treated me like I was a voice of a creative community that they actually cared about. And I found it really ironic that the multi-billion-dollar company reacted to criticism with humility, and the start-up with no cash flow reacted to criticism like a corporate machine."
- On being a style icon: "I think I know how to put together a good outfit. But any day you're going to admit to being a style icon is a day you need to look in the mirror and really check yourself. . . . [My friends and I] never talk about stuff like that. We'll be like, 'Those shoes are cute.' That's the full conversation. We all dress very differently."
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