Quotes from Frankie Cosmos

If I had to pick an artist that I look up to and am inspired by, it's Matisse because of how many times he would paint the same idea until he felt like he maybe got it right, and I try to do the same thing with my writing.

It was a really long process, dropping out of college. I was there for a semester, then I would take a semester off and go on tour, then I would go back for a semester.

I try to not assume things are sexism. I'm trying to be good natured about why things are happening.

It's even easier to write about the past now that I'm happy and have better stuff to write about. That's why someone like Bob Dylan can make so many records over so long a time; it's not like he's been sad all this time. He's really successful!

I'm always the one sitting at the merch table and talking to everyone at the show - and I think it's because I have this deep fear that if I'm not approachable or I'm not there, people are going to think I'm a brat.

I don't really understand how to do bureaucratic things - school-system things.

I go through phases sometimes: 'I'm a genius; they get me,' and sometimes I'm like, 'Why does anyone want to hear me?'

I think part of the process of putting out a record is always looking back because, by the time a song comes out, it's been a year since you wrote it.

When I was 18, I borrowed my parents' car, and they are super supportive. They might give us snacks for the road, but it's not like they are paying clubs to book us.

I hope people hear my songs and realize that writing music is kind of easy, or that taking your sadness and turning it into a beautiful song is worthwhile.

I'm trying to do what Frank O'Hara did and remind myself there there's a lot of good stuff. I write about New York for my own mental health.

I love going to weddings. I love movie scenes of weddings. Even, like, TV-show weddings - I cry at every wedding.

I can be very social, but often, it weighs down on me later that the social thing was a put-on. I feel like my way of dealing with not wanting to go out is, I just don't. I can't bring myself to.

I don't even know how people managed without the Internet years ago. Having to mail a cassette tape of your music to strangers over the course of months... I just can't imagine having to do that.

My parents listened to a lot of James Taylor and Hall and Oates. My mom and I used to listen to Liz Phair and Indigo Girls a lot in the car, too.

Everyone on the Internet is sad. Why else would they be on the Internet?

I really liked punk music and experimental music that my brother was taking me to go see in the city, when I was probably, like, 13 years old. I was seeing a lot of teenagers making 'weird' music, and I think that was probably a big part of the reason that I actually started to play myself.

It's good for people to be able to see an archive of an artist learning how to write and getting better, especially for teenagers who are starting to write: to see that I started out making pretty easy and weird and bad-sounding music and that you can teach yourself how to write over a long period of time.

What I really care about is writing... Some people feel about touring the way I feel about writing, which is, 'Whoa, I can't believe I get to do this as a job.'

I've played Frankie Cosmos shows where the promoter or whoever sees that I'm the lead singer, and then they go up to David, the bassist, and are like, 'So, do we pay you?' And he's like, 'No, you pay her; she's the boss.' Those are moments where I'm just like, 'I'm clearly in charge.'

Sometimes I'll write something that's purely autobiographical, and sometimes pure fiction, and sometimes a mix.

Whenever I'm really excited about a song, I want to learn it, and it becomes the first thing I play every time I pick up an instrument.

My Bandcamp had a lot of bad and good music, but I relied on that to sort my feelings. My sadness will always be there, even in the happiness.

It's funny: 'Next Thing' was written in a time of my life when I was actually really naive and thought that I was wise.