“Just because I’m an artist doesn’t mean I should be treated differently.”

It’s like visual is super important to me. So if I am writing a song, like, I have to have the title.

I love directing my music videos and writing video treatments, and I think it’s all just because I love the visual aspect of it as well.

Eventually I realized that Cry Baby was a character that was based off of me, and that we had a lot of similarities.

I think that every decision I make in my life is based off of an emotion – and it definitely hurts me in some situations, and helps in some situations, like obviously writing and stuff is my favourite thing to do because I get to use all of my emotions and express them in that way.

I’m glad I got to introduce myself to America by doing a Britney [Spears] song, haha!

I like pop music because it can really affect a large amount of people and if I tell stories and spread messages that I think are really important for people to be aware of, I would want it to be on the biggest platform and I feel like pop is that. I use it as a way to tell stories.

There are obviously so many artists that are very inspiring, but I can’t say that they like – that I have someone in mind that is like a creative direction of where I want to go as an artist. I think I’m just doing my own thing.

I definitely have worked trying to create music that inspires girls to feel confident and strong, and feel like they can do anything.

A lot of people say if you can’t love yourself, then you can’t love others. It’s always different, but I definitely have loved a lot in my life.

Mark Ryden is my favorite visual artist.

I have definitely noticed I am very passionate. So if I’m fighting with someone I’ll be SO super loud and aggressive, and make sure that my point is heard.

The title is the first thing that I have. Then when I have that title, I have to make sure that the title is like, so I have to make sure I can tell a whole story from that one title and like make sure that it, from beginning to end it makes sense.

I listen to a lot of music. But I definitely haven’t looked at an artist and like thought I want to have a song like this.

Cry Baby is just a character in this world that I’m trying to create, and the music videos are really important to me, and I’ve fought to obviously get all of them approved.

I was always hard on myself for taking things too personally.

Everyone got to choose what they wanted to wear on stage, and by the third time going into wardrobe the stylists already knew what I’d love and what I would never throw on my body in a million years. They were fantastic, and it was so lovely working with them.

Picasso is a painter, so am I; Picasso is Spanish, so am I; Picasso is a communist, neither am I.

I always knew I was gonna be an artist. I was very confident in that.

It is hard to separate the art from the artist.

My painting carries with it the message of pain.

When I say be creative I don’t mean that you should all go and become great painters and great poets. I simply mean let your life be a painting, let your life be a poem.

I want to be an artist artist, a real artist. I don’t just want to do this for temporary money.

A true artist always looks to the new generations.

I am a leader. Leaders always get heat. They’re always going against the grain. Jimi Hendrix got heat; Bob Marley got heat; Miles Davis got heat. Every great artist got heat. Heat means you’re doing something right.