Mitski
Mitski

You always want what you can't have, and that all-American thing, from the day I was born, I could never enter that dream. That all-American white culture is something that is inherited instead of attained.

Mitski
Mitski

Being an outsider at all times is both unhealthy and useful, because you become much more objective about things.

Mitski
Mitski

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

Mitski
Mitski

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.

Mitski
Mitski

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.

Mitski
Mitski

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.'

Mitski
Mitski

As a woman of color, I always have to be at 150 percent and better than everybody in the room to be considered competent.

Mitski
Mitski

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.

Mitski
Mitski

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

Mitski
Mitski

Growing up, I never really felt like anything was my own. I moved a lot, and I never belonged anywhere.

Mitski
Mitski

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

Mitski
Mitski

I have a very conveniently photographic memory of emotions - it's overwhelming, because things don't fade for me.

Mitski
Mitski

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.

Mitski
Mitski

It's nice to know there's a big world with many perspectives. I tend to get so stuck in my own small world easily, and going out into the world reminds me that I'm not the center of the world - in a good way.

Mitski
Mitski

I always have strong urges to sabotage myself. Whenever someone says they like something about my music, I tend to not want to do that anymore. It's not even that I don't like it anymore: it's that I keep trying to find ways for people to dislike me.

Mitski
Mitski

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

Mitski
Mitski

I guess you can say I 'do the Twist.' I like playful dance moves that aren't too serious.

Mitski
Mitski

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.'

Mitski
Mitski

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.

Mitski
Mitski

Often I've had problems automatically bending to a lover's will, becoming what I know they want me to be. Immediately, I learn all the music they love, listen to it, study it, instead of being like, 'This is what I love!'