Adele is the cover star for Time's December issue, and she's delighting us with candid quotes yet again in the accompanying interview [1]. In the short month since her new album, 25, dropped, the singer has exploded onto the scene more than ever, leaving a trail of shattered records [2] in her wake. Her new interview, of course, addresses the success of her third album and contains so many more amazing gems. In the same way Adele discussed her private life [3] with Rolling Stone, broke down her new music with i-D magazine [4], and got real about sadness [5], this interview sheds new light on the icon, both in her personal and professional lives. Keep reading for the choice quotes.

• On why people love her music so much: "The fact that I'm not shy or embarrassed to be falling apart. Everyone falls apart, I think. A lot of people try to be brave and not shed a tear. Sometimes when you know someone else feels as sh*tty as you do, or approaches things in a certain way just like you do, it makes you feel better about yourself. Even though my music is melancholy, there's also joy in that. I hope I do bring joy to people's lives, and not just sadness, but I think there's a comfort in it."
• On breaking the US record for fastest-selling album: "It's a bit ridiculous. I'm not even from America. Maybe they think I'm related to the queen. Americans are obsessed with the royal family."
• On the rumor that she turned down a Beyoncé collaboration: "Whoever started that rumor must have been having a laugh because anyone who knows me knows that my main priority in life outside of my child is Beyoncé. I really wanted to do a duet on this album. I spoke to someone about it who I wanted to do it with, and we got on like a house on fire, and then we just couldn't logistically really get it to work. I can't say who it is because I want to do it in the future. That's the only reason. It wasn't Beyoncé!"
• On what her tour will be like: "I'm not just going to stand there! I really would like to fly through the arena for the beginning, but no one's having it."
• On making a "brand" of her music and identity: "I don't like that word. It makes me sound like a fabric softener, or a packet of crisps. I'm not that. But there's personality in an artist, and if you're expecting people to let you in and give themselves to you, you have to be a whole package. I feel like some artists — and this isn't shading any artist, just me trying to come up with my own explanation — the bigger they get, the more horrible they get, and the more unlikable. And I don't care if you make an amazing album — if I don't like you, I ain't getting your record. I don't want you being played in my house if I think you're a bastard."
• On her 3-year-old son, Angelo: "He makes me so proud of myself, and he makes me like myself so much. And I've always liked myself. I've never not liked myself. I don't have hangups like that. But I'm so proud of myself that I made him in my belly. Cooked him in my belly and then he came out of me! This human who's suddenly walking around and doing his own thing. I can't wait to know who his best friends are going to be, who his girlfriend or his boyfriend is going to be or what movies he likes . . . Whatever my kid wants to do or be I will always support him no matter what."
• On turning off social media: "Privacy is key to being able to write a real record, whether people like it or not. My life has changed so much, but I've made the realest record I can make, and it's the real part of me. How am I supposed to write a real record if I'm waiting for half a million likes on a f*cking photo? That ain't real."
• On Taylor Swift [6]'s decision to remove her music from Spotify: "It was amazing. I love her — how powerful she is. We'll get lumped together now because of it, but I think we would both feel the ability to say yes or no to things even if we weren't successful."