The industry was hostile. I would be performing and they would turn off my microphone because the A-list artist doesn’t like me.

The music industry doesn't like mavericks. The reason why there are no bands now is because in the 90s Oasis and Primal Scream, Blur, and all those... (bands)-- we were the mainstream. And what the music industry doesn't like is the mainstream being a load of fellas on drugs, drunk half the time on a Tuesday. They don't like that. They like people like Harry Styles. They say, Wear this dress and shut it. Wear this, sing that, go home. And that's kinda what happened.

It's serious. We should keep fighting. There are only a few female artists doing this. It's a big responsibility. Because people can hate you. You can really have a problem with all those things

Some people misconstrue our band just to be just a commercial venture, they question the soulfulness of Coldplay because we’ve done okay. Maybe it’s because I’m English, but in terms of how people perceive us I only pick up on the negative side of it. I always feel like the big bad outside world just fucking hates us.

(About Pop Idols) Obviously, it's designed by record company executives who want a cheap success, and they don't want to give money to anybody and they don't want to give contracts, so they've created this world of very bubbly teenagers who want to be "idols" and they think all they have to do is mime quite well and they've made it. … But it's not the problem of the kids, it's the problem of the record companies, because it's just an inexpensive way for them to have so-called, I won't say "artists", but erm...You're nodding, you know what I mean.

That's what people are like: they want talent, which is inherently peculiar, yet they absolutely don't want the peculiarities connected to it - perhaps necessarily bound up with it - which they refuse to understand or forgive.

It's because they want to sound like Americans. I'd like to see them develop our music and sing it their way, but they think sounding American is going to take them higher, but it is not. They have beautiful voices, but they want to sound like Whitney Houston. You can't beat people like that at their own game. And they can't beat me at mine, either!

We are not hated for who we are. We are hated for what we do. It is not our principles that have spawned pandemic hatred of America in the Islamic world. It is our policies.

When I was coming up, trying to get to where I am now, people were so happy for me. They were rooting for me. Now that I'm on top, everyone wants to bring me down. Everyone's trying to tug at me and take my spot... A lot of people say they hate Justin Bieber who haven't even listened to my music. They just hate the idea of me.

Everything is in decline the moment you stop giving the artist freedom. That goes for everywhere, but it is happening in America right now. I think record companies are at great fault. In general, they don’t want to develop talent, but rather get the most out of them in the short term. They’re steering people to do things they perhaps wouldn’t do but have to do and not everyone has the integrity to say “No way.” People are hungry and they have to make money and take care of their families, so it’s a great pressure. Only when you can afford it from an artistic or financial point of view can you express what you want to express.

We were written off from day one. Nobody believed in us but us. We kept having hits despite the record company, despite the press.

If you’re not ready to be hated, you’re not ready to be famous.

It was hard when you practice that hard and you sound that good and everybody tells you that you should be doing something else... You want to say, 'Obviously we're not from the same planet'...Lindsey and I just couldn't understand how we could sing a beautiful song and nobody liked it. It was like, 'We don't belong here, nobody understands us.

They don't respect you. It's almost as they think they have the right to your life just because you're a celebrity. I don't accept that.