Taylor Swift on Critics: 'It's Really Fun to Mock Them Back'

Taylor Swift has revealed her approach to handling critics, stating that she sometimes finds it "really fun to mock them back." The Grammy-winning artist discussed her methods during the Grammy Museum’s Icon Sessions, which were released on Monday.

During a sit-down interview with Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, Swift explained her tactic of employing complex vocabulary. "Sometimes I like to just use words that they have to look up in order to talk s--t about," she said with a laugh.

Swift acknowledged that negative comments can sometimes "fuel" her, but emphasized that her primary motivation for creating music is not to achieve universal validation. "I realized that I’m making music because I’m playing for the fans," she stated. "I’m putting this out for people who care about it and who look to music as a way to cope with their life in the way that I did."

She added that if an artist can go through the process of creating music they love and still continue creating, knowing it won't lead to universal approval, then "you love it for the right reasons."

Swift also reflected on her life in the public eye, recognizing that she chose this path. "You chose this. You chose this every day. You could have opted out of this any day before it got unmanageably big," she recounted. "And I decided not to because I love it that much. And that’s just where it begins and where it ends. And everything that comes with this ultimately is worth it as long as I get to still make music."

In October, Swift expressed a similar sentiment regarding criticism surrounding her album "The Life of a Showgirl." She told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe that she welcomed such attention during an album release. "The rule of show business is, if it’s the first week of my album release and you are saying either my name or my album title, you’re helping," she said.

"I’m not the art police," Swift quipped. "It’s, like, everybody is allowed to feel exactly how they want, and what our goal is as entertainers is to be a mirror."