Quotes from Julien Baker

When I first started playing guitar, I would sit in my room for hours and learn scales.

I think there's seasons of life. It oscillates.

Everyone I know has a predilection for sharing words.

When you have an addictive personality, you fixate upon things easily. Routines and behaviors, and ritual, becomes very important.

The goal of embodying Christian ethics - if you want to call yourself a Christian - is being patient and loving with your neighbor.

I'm a perfectionist.

I am voting in the midterm elections because I believe that when people engage with their local government, it reminds those placed in power that they are public servants who will be held accountable for their decisions.

There's no musician who just wakes up one day and decides, 'This is what I want to do.' It takes some development.

Ultimately, I feel like there is just a pervasive evidence of God. Though I know that is maybe a controversial thing to say.

I hate those articles - this is a pet peeve of mine - like move over X, here's the new Y. And it's just like, X didn't become obsolete because there's a person doing a similar thing. You also don't have to be like the new old-thing, you're just the current you-thing.

I feel like it's a necessary part of musical development to go through that phase where you think that your favorite style of music is the only style of music, and I thought that for a while.

Music and musical instruments were proximal to my life from very early on - I took piano lessons for a brief time, but then my dad had a guitar and when he was not playing it, I would pick it up and mess with it. He jokes that I used to complain that it hurt my fingers.

I don't like to believe in canon.

I make sure I'm appreciative and can an encounter the world in a humble way.

One thing I'm super aware of in my music when I'm writing is: 'Am I overcomplicating this?' I'll write a song about some deep existential quandary and explore all these dumb thought waves, and then think 'Is it effective to say that? Or is it effective to say one simple thing that communicates the feeling better?'

Everybody wants to have an empirical analysis of a relationship ending, but sometimes there's not that much clarity, and that's OK.

Music is everything. Evidence of the divine. The possibility of man to be good. The possibility of improving our surroundings and expressing ourselves. All of these things are collapsed together in my mind.

My dad took me to the skate park every single weekend to see alternative bands.

There are still men in the professional or behind the scenes world that are controlling women to build credibility.

Passivity is a tacit endorsement of evil we are too afraid to oppose actively.

It's like a cosmic joke that people dream to perform in front of a huge crowd. But it is a welcomed challenge. I hope I always have that positive apprehension.

I love 'Exit West' by Mohsin Hamid. It's a magical realism retelling of the refugee experience, where people find these magical doors that transport them to another country.

If I can say so without sounding presumptuous, I want to model women being collaborative instead of competitive.

I do have a little bit of trouble with candor around the things that I used to do. I think it's probably just resultant of shame and embarrassment and not wanting to be defined by the life that I used to live.