Taylor Swift was honored with the cover of Marie Claire UK‘s November issue. Inside the magazine, Taylor reveals what it’s like to be in show business, how her mom is NOT a stage mom, how she’s still fascinated by love, even though it can burn you, and much more.

Marie Claire UK’s Interview Preview with Taylor Swift

On being named by Forbes magazines as the highest paid celebrity under 30 in the US

‘Yes, I heard about that and I think I called my dad and said, “How did that happen?”’ she says. ‘I just wake up every day and go about my life and do what’s on the schedule. I don’t think in terms of how much money it’s making. I just knew the crowds were getting bigger and the shows were selling out faster. For something like that to come out is certainly unexpected and nice.

On her parents being the opposite of classic showbiz parents

‘My parents were thrown into this – they never had any desire for me to do music,’ she says. ‘But now my dad tells me what to invest in and what not to, and my mum has a great marketing mind – she always has a good gut instinct on things.

On her love life and songwriting

Does she issue a warning at the beginning of a relationship, something like: just beware that if you piss me off, it will be used in a song against you?

‘Ha! Well… it’s not like it’s in fine print,’ she grins, ‘but music is absolutely everything that I am and everything that I stand for. It’s not my fault if someone gets into a relationship with me and then cheats and I write a song about it.’

She says that love is ‘something I’ve always been fascinated by, ever since I was a little kid’. And despite the well-documented failures, both in the press and on her records, she still loves the idea of love.

‘Even after it explodes into a million pieces and burns down and you’re standing in a pile of the ash of what it once was thinking, “Why did I have to meet this person, why did this have to happen?”’ she says, momentarily pausing for breath. ‘But then, when you make eye contact with someone across the room and it clicks and, bam, you’re there. In love again.’

Does she fall in love easily?

‘Not if it’s the wrong person, yes if it’s the right person,’ she says after an extended pause.

She says her experiences both good and bad have taught her plenty, and that she now knows when to walk away and how to be a better person in the process. Which begs the question: why, having been burned by high-profile types who virtually scream ‘this a bad idea’ does she keep inviting trouble and dipping back into that dating pool? After all, these are not people known for having an interest in the meaningful, long-term relationships she craves.

‘I agree with everything you’re saying,’ she says slowly, a smile creeping over her face. ‘I think I have to trust that you end up with the person you’re supposed to end up with, and that everything in between is there to teach you stuff. Plus it makes for great stories when you’re older.’

The way things are going for Taylor Swift, she’ll be able to write a whole anthology of stories by the time she hits her thirties. She’s got no plans to stop this train rolling, but she does have her sights set on a life beyond the globetrotting. She may have blown some of that hard-earned cash on a house, a condo and a car, but the rest is earmarked for a more settled future.

‘That money will be really good for sending my kids to college some day – or maybe I’ll have a few more kids than I thought,’ she muses. ‘I want a bunch of them running around, minimum four. I want to wait a while, but… the idea of pouring everything you are into another person when you become a parent has always been amazing to me.’

She says that a lot of the choices she makes are ultimately for what her kids would think one day.

‘That factors into everything I do,’ she says. ‘They’re going to have computers and they’re going to be able to read what I said in this interview.’

She’s right there: Taylor’s digital footprint has enormous reach. She’s been using her MySpace, Twitter and Facebook accounts to communicate with her fans from the beginning of her career, and insists that she does all the updates herself. ‘What else am I doing when I wake up early?’ she says. The attention to detail is paying off: she currently has around 34 million Facebook ‘likes’, her Twitter feed has nearly 18 million followers and her MySpace page has had a staggering 120 million views. All followers are treated to daily updates and insights into the minutiae of her life.

All of which makes Taylor Swift one very busy pop star, a star with one wish left to fulfil: to stop over-analysing and just to enjoy. She says she’s already spent way too much time thinking too hard about what others think of her, and she’s decided it’s time to stop. ‘At some point you have to snap yourself out of it and go, “You know what? Right now your level of insecurity is bordering on vain. Stop it.” That’s when I stop myself and go, “Everything’s fine, your family’s healthy, life is good.”

To read the Taylor Swift interview in full, see the November issue of British Marie Claire out this Thursday.

Also, if you like Marie Claire UK on Facebook, you’ll be able to view the special subscribers cover image! Click HERE to see the exclusive photo.

Marie Claire UK was kind enough to send TaylorSwift13.org some stunning photos of Taylor. Click each image below to view it in high-resolution. Credit goes to the photographer, David Roemer.

Finally, here’s a video interview from Taylor on the set of the photo shoot.