Lady Gaga covers the October 16 issue of The Sunday Times' Culture section, where inside the U.K. newspaper she talks about her shift away from the flamboyant fashions of Born This Way and Artpop, turning her father's pain over losing his sister into a moment of catharsis for her family, her collaboration track with Florence and the Machine's Florence Welch, and more.

Below, we've grabbed some of the Joanne artist's standout quotes from her interview:

On her sartorial evolution: "But if I wear black t-shirt and black pants every day, [people] might listen to what I write. All the outfits, fashion and art pieces over the years made sense to me. They didn't make sense to other people... This time my style just stayed naturally at how I've been in the studio. I started vehemently saying, 'Get these clothes out! I'm not wearing this! I'm not wearing heels!' And some of that too is because I've been in the studio with boys. You can't make music with a bunch of boys who are staring at a lobster at your head. They are going to get distracted."

On grappling with her father's pain over the loss of Joanne: "He sits there and tears stream down his face... My whole life I never understood why my father was so sad, drank so much or was wild. I thought it was my fault and it was painful for the family. I'd witness year after year that feeling of loss in my father and grandparents. There's something so powerful and deep [about losing] a child."

On Joanne as a form of catharsis, not a concept album: "[The record is] not a concept album, but an honest one...You could ask me something personal about each song. I'm not sure I'd go into detail about it but Joanne gave me strength to live the rest of the life she didn't get to have. Calling it Joanne is, I guess—I think, if I can heal one person, maybe I can heal two, five, ten million. If I could just heal my dad, then maybe [I] might heal someone else."

On her duet with Florence Welch: "The song is about women supporting one another. Many women no matter their race, color, religion, go through the same issues with men, bodies, minds. A lot of women shut down as they don't feel heard. It ain't easy. I know it is pulling me apart...This is about an unconditional love women have for each other...I'd like women to hear the song and when they walk into a bar and see a girl they've never met, they just go, 'Hey, girl.' And that means, 'I know. We're in this bar, and these men are foolish, but I got you...'"

On the state of the world: "I wouldn't say I'm discouraged. I would just say I'm older and in a strong state of reality; trying with statements about positivity and love to speak in a way that is not too naive, perhaps, [and] in a way that where people who live in this world can relate to what I'm saying as opposed to feeling it's la-di-da. It's about using words and allowing the pain I feel to exist on the record, and not to hide it with anything...My mother cried when I started recording. I asked 'What's wrong?' And she said, 'There's so much pain in your voice now.'"

On when she feels like her most happy state of being: "In this world we're all trying to keep up. Put a perfect image out of who we are. But the most happy and authentic I ever feel is when I am who I was as a child."

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