Quotes from Mitski

I know for a fact that I'm problematic. I shouldn't be looked to for any kind of guidance.

I don't set out to write something. I more just write, and later on, I discover what it's about.

When you're an adult, things mellow out. I think when you're a teenager and you are sad and the world is ending, everything is about that one sadness.

I think my whole identity is formed around not knowing where I'm from. It might even be that I find comfort in that confusion.

When you're doing something you're not used to, you kind of realize that you're still a kid: even though the whole world around you sees you as an adult and you're expected to act like an adult, you still haven't actually grown up.

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

My personality's very obsessive-compulsive. I tend to fixate a lot.

When someone is a musician - trying to make a living off being a public figure - it's really easy for people to see me as a face on a screen that doesn't have a personal life.

I'm punk, but I love gold.

Maybe this is a made-up belief to preserve myself, but I do believe that everyone has a purpose, and my purpose is to put out music that means something.

Music was the one thing that was just mine, and no one could take it from me. I created it, dictated it, and it made me not able to let go of it.

There's this myth that women are supposed to compete with each other or something, or we're supposed to hate each other, and that's totally not productive.

When you are a minority, it's your job to bend, and when you love someone, you really want to make it work. Then you start to realise, 'Oh, I'm bending a lot,' and they're just standing there existing, and I'm bending around them. But you can't blame them: they don't realise it; that's just how they already existed. It's hard.

I would love for Rivers Cuomo to listen to my music and see what he thinks.

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

I really like The Cars. They're just so over the top and super pop, but I don't feel guilty. I'm proud of all the music I listen to.

I think people don't realize how little of being an artist is making art.

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

Everything is so chaotic and messy in the world, and I have always felt kind of dirty.

I didn't fit in anywhere when I grew up, but I was always American, so to survive, I created this 'ideal America.' Finally I came to the U.S. and realised, 'Oh, I don't belong here, either.'

What's important to me is that my songs can exist without any material anything. It's very reflective of my ideology.

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.

You can be heartbroken about a relationship but also, from it, realize you are you, and you're okay with who you are or where you came from.

If I ever found a place where I belonged, that in itself would be an identity crisis to me.