Quotes from Michelle Zauner

I felt like I could never write nonfiction, because I would have to spend so many pages explaining my ethnic background, and that wasn't really the story that I ever was interested in telling.

I would love to play an H Mart parking lot.

One thing that was pretty eye-opening to me was that red pepper came from the New World in the 15th or 16th century. So these things that we think of as inherently Korean actually have an even longer history than that.

My relationship to music is such an essential part of who I am, and was a big part of my relationship with my mom.

I try to not beat myself up about anything. I think that's the biggest thing.

I do really love New York. I feel like there are more Asian restaurants. Philly has a sick food scene, I don't want to diss it at all. But New York is so much bigger and there are more options.

I can't be into plants. I'm never at home.

I love Pico Iyer's 'A Beginner's Guide to Japan', which again is not about Korea, but so full of clever observations from the point of view of a foreigner in a new city, it's just delightful.

Then, in high school, I had a kind of mental breakdown; I didn't want to go to school anymore. It felt pointless. It was around the same time that I became really interested in music.

I'm obviously a poptimist. I especially like pop music that isn't formulaic and has depth to it.

When you're looking back at your ancestral history or the cultural context of your identity, it's natural to search for that in the food.

It was really difficult to tour on 'Psychopomp' for a year and do the press cycle and talk to people three or four times a day about my mom dying.

I never really wanted to be a journalist, honestly. I always wanted to be a writer, and I thought the only way to apply that interest was with journalism - when you're young and you want to be a writer, it seems like the most practical thing to do with those types of ambitions.

When I started doing press after college, I never got asked about my racial identity; I was asked more about being a girl in music.

I just miss the heartbeat of the band and crew. Watching everyone have their individualized tasks, and it all coming together to accomplish something huge every single night. Of course, seeing the kids and having songs that you wrote some back to you and yeah, just getting to do it all.

I've always felt like I needed to experience some type of anguish in order to feel productive as an artist.

I've been lucky to come up when there's such a huge explosion of women, and especially Asian women, in music.

I had this idea of writing a sci-fi musical about a woman who falls in love with a robot and realizes it's a love that can't be, and enlists in the Mars One project.

My mom would frequently tell me to save your tears for when your mother dies.

But I love listening to my own songs and I know they're working well if I'm not thinking too much about them technically.

There's this thing where Asian parents force you to play an instrument at an early age, but god forbid you like it and want to pursue it professionally! But, as a kid, I never did choir, and didn't sing.

If you wrote a crummy line or maybe didn't sing to the best of your ability, there's layers of 10 different instruments all working to convey something. In writing prose for the memoir, if it's not working, it's just not working. It's harder to figure out how to fix it.

Once death was really close to me, I suddenly became very fearful of it. I think that lit a fire in me like, 'What do you have to say before it happens?'

Even as a teenager, when I made mix CDs for people, it all had this sort of track flow: I like to start off very in-your-face, and kind of chill out towards the end and have this almost, like, denouement.