Adele Out Magazine June/July 2011
“I always say I’m a singing lady, rather than a singer. Singer is a big word for me. My interpretation of a singer is Etta James and Carole King and Aretha Franklin.” 
“My music’s not stylized—it’s not sold by image, or by my sexuality, or aloofness, or anything like that. I think it would be really bizarre if I started doing gimmicks and stunts—it wouldn’t suit my music. I’ve got lots of friends who are artists and they love it (Performing at big festivals like Glastonbury.) "They’re, like, ‘I was born to perform,’ and I’m like, ‘Fuck off—no one’s born to perform. That's like standing over there naked.” 
“I’ve met people I admire, and people I don’t admire who are completely affected by their success, and I fucking hate them. There’s so many people who believe their own hype and treat people like shit, and if I was ever like that I would absolutely stop doing what I’m doing for a while and go and find myself again. I find it grotesque when people change because of it, but maybe it’s because they’re not as good at keeping in contact with the people who love them for a reason.”
“Even when I was 10 and 11, I knew my mom had brilliant taste in music (The Cure, Sinéad O’Connor)-- I just wasn’t ready to embrace it. Now they’re my favorite artists.” She has thought about recording a cover of “Troy,” by Sinéad O’Connor, the first song that ever made her cry, and another favorite of her mom’s, but doubts her ability to deliver it. “As an artist she is everything I would like to be—it’s all about the song,” says Adele. “She moves me when I hear her.” 
“The difference between the first and second album is that I was more philosophical about it all the second time, and I’m hoping that if I’m happy I can embrace it enough to write a record about it. It would be fucking awful if my third album was about being happily settled down, and maybe on my way to being a mom, and all the critics were, like, ‘Yeah, it’s fucking shit. Can you be miserable, please?’ And all the fans were going, ‘I just don’t like you anymore. I don’t bond with you anymore.’ ”
About how her music helps her fans, Adele shared a story about a young gay kid who thanked her for giving him the strength to come out:
“He fancied someone at school, but he wasn’t out. And he listened to ‘Someone Like You’ and came out to his best friend and then to the boy he fancied, and it turned out that he was gay as well, and now they’re together -- he’s like 15. I had to leave so I didn’t burst into tears.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever forgive myself for not making my relationship with my ex on 21 work, because he’s the love of my life.” Adele says, before adding that she would have been willing to give up everything for him. Everything? “Well, I would still be singing in the shower, of course, but yeah -- my career, my friendships, my hobbies. I would have given up trying to be the best. He made me really weak, but at the same time really fucking fearless, so I managed to channel that. I don’t know if I’ll ever beat this album in terms of how people connect to it.”
“I don’t know if it’s because I’m an only child, but I was never, ever good at saying how I felt about things. From the age of about 5, if I was told off for not sharing, or I didn’t tidy my room, or I spoke back to my mom, I’d always write a note as my apology.”
“I get a lot of mail from people who tell me that I make them really happy to be themselves, and really comfortable with who they are, which I love. I would hate it if someone was, like, ‘I wish I was you’ because I’m as insecure about myself as the next person.” In what way? “Just that I’m not good enough -- in my music, in my relationships, and that I’m never going to be brave enough to tell someone how I feel.”
About winning two Grammy awards for her first album '19', Adele said:
“I had just come back from the toilet, so my Spanx weren’t even all the way up. Then I won Best New Artist, and it was like time slowed down, and I was hovering over myself, pissing myself laughing. It was amazing.”
