Being an outsider at all times is both unhealthy and useful, because you become much more objective about things.
MITSKIThere’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.
More Mitski Quotes
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You always want what you can’t have, and that all-American thing, from the day I was born,
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I created this ‘ideal America.’ Finally I came to the U.S. and realised, ‘Oh, I don’t belong here, either.’
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I don’t want to be a musician’s musician. I want to be an everyone’s musician.
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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.
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I tend to kind of try to use what’s in my environment to the best of my ability rather than seek out things that I don’t already have.
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I was one of those girls people called ‘intense.’
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I think it’s our responsibility as artists to not only fight for our art but fight for the communities that are the reason we’re able to continue making art, especially since, in Brooklyn’s case, we as artists somehow made it ‘cool’ enough for the bigger money-making industries to start taking over.
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Being an outsider makes you a really good writer.
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As a woman of color, I always have to be at 150 percent and better than everybody in the room to be considered competent.
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Whenever I’ve tried to ingratiate myself to an existing community, I tend to give too much, to become whatever it is they want me to be. It’s something I do automatically – I’ve learnt to immediately adapt.
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I could never enter that dream. That all-American white culture is something that is inherited instead of attained.
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It’s very tempting, when somebody says they like this about you, to want to do that over and over.
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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.
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My personality’s very obsessive-compulsive. I tend to fixate a lot.
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I know for a fact that I’m problematic. I shouldn’t be looked to for any kind of guidance.
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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.
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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.
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I have a very conveniently photographic memory of emotions – it’s overwhelming, because things don’t fade for me.
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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.
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I’ve been asked whether I have a hobby, and have felt strangely offended that anyone would assume I have the time.
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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.
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I’m so smart. I am good at doing math really quickly in my head.
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I hope to be a writer and musician my whole life, fingers crossed.
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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!’
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All I want to do at karaoke is sing Mariah Carey.
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If I ever found a place where I belonged, that in itself would be an identity crisis to me.
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