Lucy Dacus

“It's one thing to make something, and then it's another thing to put it in front of other people.”

“Four months after we released 'I Don't Want to Be Funny Anymore,' the album came out on EggHunt. Three months after that, we officially signed with Matador. That's not a very long time: half a year between the first flood and the final signing.”

“My favorite music is when the sound is supplementing the message. I don't think it's dramatic; it's cinematic.”

“A breakup is a state of mind that needs encouragement and needs hopeful, forward thinking.”

“When I'm on a stage, it's just me, singing a song with words that I wrote and I believe in. And if I don't believe in them anymore, I'll stop singing that song.”

“There's a lot of art that's about loss and sadness, but I would love it if hopefulness were more of a cliche. That's the work that always sticks with me and emboldens me in life.”

“When I finished reading '100 Years of Solitude,' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I got really sad. I thought, 'This will never happen for me, for the first time, ever again.' Then I opened 'Beauty Is a Wound.' It's a completely different story and writing style, but it has a similar place in my heart now.”

“What's cool about Matador is that everyone I've met there is just so chill and really into what they're doing. Everyone that works there, there's just such a lack of ego, and there's such a commitment to what they're doing. They all like each other.”

“I like to think of hope as a fact and something that wins out always. Whether you're hopeful or not, actually, you do get through what you're in the middle of. When you're in it, you don't feel like that's possible. But time and time again, we're proven wrong.”

“I will say it is funny that writing a song about not wanting to entertain people is what got me a career in entertainment.”

“I really believe in hopefulness and respect people that are hopeful. I think I'm at my best when I think hopefully.”

“My mom is an elementary school music teacher, a pianist, and a singer, and my dad plays guitar - he's a huge Bruce Springsteen fan. My mom does musical theater, too. All of those influences were around.”

“Questions don't easily die within me until they're answered, and so being able to write a song and put words to complex feelings is part of my process of understanding and letting go of things.”

“I love Led Zeppelin!”

“I don't have any weird gimmicks. I do put on lipstick for the show. That's what separates it. 'Cause I don't wear makeup at all... That's probably the closest thing I have to a routine.”

“For a while, I called myself an agnostic, which was me wanting to maintain a connection to the culture I was raised in while also undercutting a lot of the beliefs I had.”

“Film is like sculpture, writing, acting, technical arts, all sorts of arts. And that's why I wanted to do it for so long, because it would include so many places for attention.”

“There is no 'stop' - there's always 'go' on both sides: always keep writing, always keep recording. I don't find them to be segmented processes.”

“I was adopted, and so was my mom. And so I just was in tune with how life can be intentional. I feel like maybe that helped me to not feel super entitled to a lot of things as a kid.”

“I think I've had extremes of being unable to exist outside of my own head, and then I only am existing for other people... There's a middle ground where I should take care of myself and other people.”