Beyoncé - Knowles - Vogue March 2013

Beyonce graces the cover of Vogue‘s March 2013 issue, on newsstands February 19.

Here is what the 31-year-old Grammy-winning singer had to share with the mag:

On giving birth to her daughter Blue Ivy: “I felt very maternal around eight months. And I thought I couldn’t become any more until I saw the baby. . . . But it happened during my labor because I had a very strong connection with my child. I felt like when I was having contractions, I envisioned my child pushing through a very heavy door. And I imagined this tiny infant doing all the work, so I couldn’t think about my own pain. . . . We were talking. I know it sounds crazy, but I felt a communication.”

On her new family life: “I feel like I have something that has grounded me so much more. Family has always been important. I’ve always had my mother and my father and my husband. But it’s just… Life is so much more than… It’s not defined by any of this.”

On splitting with her father as her business manager: “My soul has been tarnished… My father taught me so much about being a businesswoman. And I’m understanding him a lot now… A lot of the crazy things he did were necessary.”

Gwyneth Paltrow on her gal pal: “When she is working onstage, she has more power than any woman I’ve ever seen. She would never say it and has never said it, but I feel she knows with every fiber of her being that she is the best in the world at her job.”