Mitski

If I have a song where I hit some really high notes, I want to try to bring in equivalently low notes somewhere in there.

I can't read in a car, because I'll get sick. It's almost instant.

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

I try to be regimented and try to stay healthy and work out and eat properly and go to sleep. And not get too caught up in the industry in my regular life, so I can save all my expression and energy for my art.

I think it's very dangerous as an artist to be comfortable.

I've stopped wanting a home, I think, because I've been on tour all my life, basically.

I was one of those girls people called 'intense.'

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

I think growing up the way I did has made me a lot more objective, and that's important in the process of writing and trying to look at subjective matter that way.

In my first few years of being in New York, I had a major identity crisis because I'd never stayed in one place for so long.

I actually love the summer. When I went to Miami on tour, I was actually like, 'I love this place.'

I don't really listen to pop-country, but I like really, really old country that's closer to folk. Like Johnny Cash, who is considered country.

I hate that my opinions are gonna be on record... that my opinions of other artists are going to be on record.

My father was obsessed with folk music from around the world, and I think the countless artists who performed them are my biggest influences.

I think my real influences are out of my control, which are the things that entered my brain when I was a kid growing up.

Whenever I've tried to ingratiate myself to an existing community, I tend to give too much, to become whatever it is they want me to be. It's something I do automatically - I've learnt to immediately adapt.

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!'

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

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.

It would actually feel forced or unnatural to try to do a different singing style or to try to change my sound completely.