Katy Perry won't hit out at her former lovers in her music.

The "Roar" hitmaker's third album, Prism, deals with her emotional state after her split from ex-husband Russell Brand in 2012, but she insists she tries not to make her former flames look like the bad guy in her tracks.

"Well, I never try to make people out to be villains, too much. There's a lot of empathy in my writing, even if there is pain and sadness. I think I'm not always trying to point the finger. I think on this record, the whole Prism record, it's very self-reflective and you hear that I've kind of gone inside more and looked at where I can make myself better, did a patchwork thing, rather than like 'Screw you. You're crazy. F**k you.'"

Katy - who is now dating John Mayer - still remembers the love she shared with former partners and wouldn't want to discredit it, but prefers to reflect on her own part in the failure of her relationships. "It's really easy when relationships end to be like 'That guy was a f***ing douchebag.' But really if you laid it down, and you saw the whole span of the relationship, you saw that you were in love. You saw the intimate moments, you saw the pain, you saw all the emotions and you have to kind of say 'Well, what responsibility can I take for myself in all of this?'" the 29 year-old said.