Jenny Lewis

“I'm always pretty nervous when I do anything! I walk very slowly. I'm very careful.”

“I love 'Wowee Zowee.' That was the first Pavement record I bought.”

“I demo all of my songs on Garage Band, where I pretty much play everything - not very well, but I manage to hammer out a drum beat and a bass idea.”

“You never know how things are going to turn out in a movie. You can imagine a scene one way, and it can turn out to be completely the polar opposite of what you expected. You just have to roll with the punches.”

“My mother's records were formative for me, but when I became a teenager, I wanted to find songs that she wasn't hip to. She was so hip, though, that I had to go outside rock n' roll - so for about 10 years, I only listened to hip-hop, house and techno.”

“I am a child of digital generation. I have done most of the records with Rilo Kiley on computers, on Pro Tools or other digital programs.”

“It's interesting how songs can evolve. Sometimes I'll write a song that feels relevant in the moment, but four years later, I don't want to sing it anymore. Then something will happen in my life, and the song becomes relevant again.”

“Sometimes people come to my shows and think I'm a Christian artist, and they put their hands up in the air, like they do. But first of all, I'm a Jewish girl from the Valley, and I'm from Los Angeles. It's funny to be misinterpreted.”

“I've always tried to get around writing love songs, I guess because I've always had a hard time saying, 'I love you.'”

“I grew up on Loretta Lynn and Dusty Springfield. I remember lying about it; it wasn't cool to listen to country when I was 12.”

“I think it's always an adjustment for me, but I do feel like, ultimately, I can kind of write anywhere. It just takes a second to get back in to the groove.”

“When you're in a band, inevitably, someone is siding with someone else, and you're fighting over something that happened in the band five years ago.”

“The best shows I play, I almost don't even remember off the stage.”

“If I'm not crying while writing a song, I'm not doing it right.”

“When I sit down to write a song, there is no filter. I'm not trying to write for anyone or anything specifically. It's just trying to capture a little piece of your soul - even if it's a really ugly part.”

“I had a huge Lisa Frank sticker collection. I traded them.”

“Insomnia is a very prevalent issue. It's a women's health issue, and I chose to talk about it because so many people have experienced it to varying degrees. For me, I'm doing great now, but it took a lot of work to figure out how to get back to sleep. I had to change some of my habits. I developed some pretty bad sleep ritual habits.”

“When I was a teenager, I went to Europe on a backpacking trip by myself, and I met a woman who was following Sebadoh. It was the early 1990s, and that was my introduction to indie rock.”

“Losing your parent is unlike anything.”

“I've gone through terrible periods of depression. But, at the core of my being, there's a strange, out-of-place optimist. Despite what I'm feeling, I'm always able to get up and do my job. Which means the world to me.”