Quotes from Mitski

Being an outsider makes you a really good writer.

I couldn't wait to get out of school, but once I did, I didn't actually know what I wanted to do with myself. I don't really know how it happened, but I just started writing music and realized that's what I wanted to do.

Tour isn't good for writing, but it's good for inspiration.

On tour, I don't drink, because I don't think in any other job you are supposed to get to work and drink whisky.

On tour, people know that if they ever ask me what I want to eat, I will always say Asian food. I'm becoming a stereotype, but it's what I want to eat. I want to eat rice.

I can't read in a car, because I'll get sick. It's almost instant.

Pop artists work really hard, and they might not work for the same things that indie artists do, but they're still musicians, and they're still making art.

I think my real influences are out of my control, which are the things that entered my brain when I was a kid growing up.

I'm not an innovator.

I have this thing about being acknowledged and accepted by institutions.

I was one of those girls people called 'intense.'

I lived abroad most of my life in insular international communities.

I remember I took a music course in junior year of high school, and some girl brought in 'Teardrops On My Guitar,' and she was like, 'Isn't this song great?' And everyone was like, 'Who's Taylor Swift?' And now, every time I listen to Taylor Swift, I remember that moment.

All I want to do at karaoke is sing Mariah Carey.

When you're young is the one time when you get to indulge in being morose and take yourself most seriously.

I feel like I've always wanted to live in one place and stay in one place, but I always end up choosing things that make me travel.

I discovered I was an Asian American when I arrived in the U.S. I didn't identify as that before I came here. People started calling me that, and I started being treated in a specific way.

I'm so smart. I am good at doing math really quickly in my head.

Honestly, in the music business, it's all about being cool or being the newest thing or being the 'It' person, and I've tried really hard to be what is expected of me or what would be advantageous to my career, and I just reached the point where I said, 'No, I'm an emotional loser. I can't pretend to not care.'

I've been very careful to always make clear that I am a real person. That's why I'm on social media a lot.

I actually love the summer. When I went to Miami on tour, I was actually like, 'I love this place.'

I don't think I'm alone in this: I'm obsessed with trying to not only be happy but maintain happiness, but my definition of happiness is skewed more towards ecstasy rather than contentment.

I have my privileges, but I do feel like at every turn there is such resistance. Things seem to take so much longer for me to do. I have to say things 10 times instead of once. I have to knock on 10 different doors instead of two. For everything. All the time. I feel like I'm not taken seriously.

I think your ego gets in the way of making something good because it kind of blinds you from the actual art.