Fiona Apple

“I don't know if anybody wants to mix their politics with their entertainment.”

“I don't want to give advice to a 19-year-old, because I want a 19-year-old to make mistakes and learn from them. Make mistakes, make mistakes, make mistakes. Just make sure they're your mistakes.”

“What's really good is African drum music.”

“I just tend to do things to myself that I don't realize I'm doing. Sometimes I bite my lip so that it splits and hurts, and yet I can't stop. And sometimes I'd play shows on the last run, I'd scratch my neck while I was singing, and I'd horrified to see these red streaks of blood after.”

“Nothing that you do will ever feel good if you let people convince you that you have no choice.”

“I used to get a shiver if I thought about holding balloons, because I was scared of floating away.”

“Hearing my songs in public freaks me out a bit. There was one restaurant I really liked in L.A., but I had to stop going there when they started playing my music. It felt kinda awkward.”

“I've gone through stages where I hate my body so much that I won't even wear shorts and a bra in my house because if I pass a mirror, that's the end of my day.”

“I was so self-critical. I still am, but it's not as bad anymore.”

“For me, the best times are always going to be the most intense, the ones with the highest highs and the lowest lows.”

“How can you go wrong with two people in love? If a good boy loves a good girl, good. If a good boy loves another good boy, good. And if a good girl loves the goodness in good boys and good girls, then all you have is more goodness, and goodness has nothing to do with sexual orientation.”

“And if I'm being honest, I don't think I have an ex-boyfriend who would have something mean to say about me.”

“I'm a really good parent to myself sometimes, and I do things that make me learn and grow.”

“I'm not a control freak.”

“The worst pain in the world is shame. I spend a lot of time trying to not do anything bad to anyone, but you can't live your life and not hurt people.”

“I don't think what I look like is relevant.”

“I really don't think anything I do is a mistake. It could be if I didn't learn from it.”

“I think I'm better at live shows than I used to be because I'm way more comfortable with the uncomfortable pauses between songs. Now, rather than trying to talk or do a costume change, I'll use those moments for myself. I listen to what other people are playing, or just rest, or dance, even though I don't know how to.”

“I had really bad obsessive-compulsive disorder. At its worst, I was compelled to leave my house at three o'clock in the morning and go out in the alley because I just knew that the paper-towel roll I threw in the recycling bin was uncomfortable, like it was lying the wrong way, and I would be down in the garbage.”

“I wanted to write a happy song. I didn't know how.”