Quotes from Carrie Brownstein

I want to have a sense of openness and optimism, even if that means being open to things that are potentially dark.

Music has always been my constant, my salvation. It's cliche to write that, but it's true.

The process of coming out, as much as other people want to couch it in terms of politics, it's a very personal journey.

Of course, 'Portlandia' is all about ways that people curate their physical space and their life.

My father wasn't just taciturn - it was like he didn't want to be heard.

I think that the most well-intentioned, optimistic, creative people often live for the moment, and for 'Portlandia,' our goals were always very sort of short-term and attainable.

I associate Taylor Swift with some pretty kinky stuff.

With sociolinguistics, after covering the basics of the field, I focused on discourse analysis.

Music was a means through which I could meet people and sort of begin the process of exploring who I was or who I could be.

So many things can be filtered through fandom - joy, compassion, love.

With music, I get to a much darker place. Where I'm able to go with 'Portlandia' has a wider range, but also a brighter range.

'Beasts of the Southern Wild' was one of those films that I felt like I could dismiss because it received so many accolades, but then I watched it and was won over.

Chemistry cannot be manufactured or forced, so Wild Flag was not a sure thing, it was a 'maybe,' a 'possibility.' But after a handful of practice sessions, spread out over a period of months, I think we all realized that we could be greater than the sum of our parts.

I think there's a lot of wonderful comics that leave you hanging in a state of apprehension or anxiety before alleviating that tension with a joke.

There was a clarity to the Nineties. It was pre-9/11, before that anxiety kicked in that exists right now about the financial crisis or terrorism. We were all just going to move forward into the millennium and everything was always going to get better. Then, whoops, that didn't happen.

I really don't know what to do when my life is not chaotic.

You can never underestimate that moment of somebody explaining your life to you, something you thought was inexplicable, through music. That was the way out of loneliness.

Practice. Learn and then unlearn - that's the trick in finding your own style of playing. You can't merely emulate, you have to innovate, or at the very least create your own path into the process.

From dancing around to Michael Jackson and Madonna as a kid to having my mind blown by the first sounds of punk and indie rock, to getting to play my own songs and have people listen, music is what got me through.

With Rock Band, you can play along to Black Sabbath or Nirvana and possibly find new ways of appreciating their artistry by being allowed to perform parallel to it. Rock Band puts you inside the guts of a song.

I think a lot of people want stories or lives to have very distinct beginnings, middles, and endings. Generally, I think things are a little more fluid than that.

I feel like I came in comedy's side door, and still feel very fraudulent in many ways.

I love Joy Williams, Lorrie Moore: such great short-story writers.

I got kind of tired of playing, I think. But I think it will be part of my life again, maybe.