Mitski

“All I want to do at karaoke is sing Mariah Carey.”

“I took a few piano lessons as a kid, but it didn't last; I just learned piano from doing it over and over on my own, because I didn't have many friends, and there was always a keyboard in the house.”

“Everything is so chaotic and messy in the world, and I have always felt kind of dirty.”

“It's nice to know there's a big world with many perspectives. I tend to get so stuck in my own small world easily, and going out into the world reminds me that I'm not the center of the world - in a good way.”

“I hope to be a writer and musician my whole life, fingers crossed.”

“I really like The Cars. They're just so over the top and super pop, but I don't feel guilty. I'm proud of all the music I listen to.”

“With solo shows, you have complete control over the set list. If you feel like you want to do something different or do a new song, you can just work it in. You can talk to the audience or not talk to the audience. There's nothing that's set.”

“When I go onstage and am performing the way I want to... I finally feel like myself.”

“I don't think I have the kind of creativity to write fiction.”

“I think what's hard for me is not that I don't get downtime to chill, it's that I don't get time to make music.”

“I don't want to be a musician's musician. I want to be an everyone's musician.”

“It's very tempting, when somebody says they like this about you, to want to do that over and over.”

“Being an outsider makes you a really good writer.”

“Often I've had problems automatically bending to a lover's will, becoming what I know they want me to be. Immediately, I learn all the music they love, listen to it, study it, instead of being like, 'This is what I love!'”

“I didn't fit in anywhere when I grew up, but I was always American, so to survive, I created this 'ideal America.' Finally I came to the U.S. and realised, 'Oh, I don't belong here, either.'”

“I really just care about making music and how I can make it next.”

“Oftentimes, the most important decisions I make are the ones I don't put much thought into.”

“What's important to me is that my songs can exist without any material anything. It's very reflective of my ideology.”

“I guess you can say I 'do the Twist.' I like playful dance moves that aren't too serious.”

“I'd always been fascinated by death, which sounds so morbid. Especially being a woman trying to make music, I think there's a sense that you're never young enough, or your career is going to end soon.”