"I played cello on my early recordings, but that doesn't mean I'm a cellist, you know?"
"I started classical piano when I was eight, but I wasn't a virtuoso. I just really liked it."
"It's nice to work with people who know how to mic drums right and how to record properly. But there's something to be said for doing it yourself."
"I grew up watching 'Gigi.' My grandmother had it, and I watched it there."
"I think of each record as different and not having very much in common with what went before or what comes next."
"I'm happy that I worked alone on 'Tragedy,' but it's obvious that I was trying to create something much bigger than I could do on my own."
"I usually work in a room which is totally cluttered with my mess, and there's stuff everywhere, and it's kind of chaotic because I am a very messy person. I could totally write in a pristine environment, but it would mean I would have to be at someone else's house."
"I often find that I like the vibe of not having technology around me."
"When I was a kid, I had a xylophone, and I thought that was the instrument I wanted to play. I didn't realize it was a toy."
"I see myself as a songwriter and a poet."
"What was special about Leonard Cohen's work was its calm mystery."
"I love '80s beats; everyone does."
"You don't have to know about 'Hippolytus' to listen to 'Tragedy.'"
"One thing I do like about L.A. is the fact that you can be - whether you're famous or it's just a matter of, like, seeing people you know all the time on the street, you can be pretty anonymous and walk around and, like, not run into people, because it's such a big city and because a lot of people drive."
"I'm inspired by nonmusical things a lot, whether it's a film or a book or whatever."
"No one recognises me on the street, ever."
"You can have an Internet presence, but it doesn't mean anyone has any idea who you are or what you look like. Which is great."
"I don't like to talk too much about my music; I like people to just experience it and not worry what I have to say."
"There's definitely been a focus on the literary aspects of my music, and I always get a little cringey because I don't feel like I'm particularly literary. There's a sort of academic label that's put on me that seems inaccurate."
"Amidst all the internal and external babble we experience daily, it's hard to find one's foundation."
"The classic problem in a relationship is a person trying to control the other person. People just want to conquer somebody."
"It's so hard to know where you belong, ever. You have to be yourself and let yourself fall wherever you fall."
"I'm not, like, always focused; I'm very unfocused. I'm reading, and then I'm looking at my phone, and then I'm on the Internet."
"I do have a big problem with the idea of music as a form of communication unless it's political - and that's where it's tricky because a lot of music is political, even if it's not overtly so. But my music isn't that; it's about a feeling."
"Green tea is my main source of caffeine, so I drink it every day."
