Taylor Swift Reveals Her "Favorite Thing in Life Right Now"

Updated on 10/20/2015 at 4:05 AM

Taylor Swift has been taking over the world on her 1989 tour for almost six months now, and she's had scores of special guests join her along the way. It goes without saying that the tour — well, the year 2015 in general — has been ridiculously awesome for the pop star, but Taylor knows when she's worn out her welcome. In the November issue of Vogue Australia, Taylor is getting real about the "illusion" of her icon status and how people might be getting a little sick of her. Plus, she explains how she assembled her star-studded squad and why her friends mean so much to her. Read on for her quotes, then figure out your Taylor Swift Halloween costume.

On her famous squad: "My friendship group is one of my favorite things about my life right now. Our friends really have each others' back. It’s the first time in my life that I've had anything strong like that in the friendship department."
On how she's made so many friends: "A lot of the time I'll reach out to people to tell them they're great and a friendship will come out of them. Ella and I — Lorde — we met on our own because her album came out and I sent her flowers and told her it was great and now she's one of my best friends. Friendship often comes from admiration and that feels like a natural way to be friends with someone because you've established you respect what the person does."
On being universally and unconditionally loved: "Oh, that is such an illusion. The public could change their minds about me tomorrow. If they decided that I was annoying tomorrow, they would use that angle and then a few other writers would use that and it would catch on. Things are good right now but I'm never going to be stupid, foolish or ignorant enough to think I have control over the public. All I can control is making good music. I am so lucky that people seem to like me right now, but in no way, shape or form is it a permanent thing. And I think being aware of that is what keeps you smart and is what keeps you on the game."

On giving an extended focus to 1989: "This album has produced more number ones than any album in the past, so we're just going to go with it. Then I'll feel like I'll need to give people a breather from me because at a certain point they're going to get a little sick of hearing about me, so I'll need to go away for a while then, depending on my gauge on how sick of me they are, I'll decide when to put out the next album."
On the importance of being a songwriter: "Being a songwriter is the reason why I approached all of this with such conviction. I don't think that I would care 1/16th as much if I didn't write every song lyric that you hear me sing. It drives everything, it drives creative ideas about what the music videos are going to be, it drives the production elements that are going to be on tour and the stories I want to tell. It absolutely determines everything; everything's drawn from the lyrics."