“I don’t set out to write something. I more just write, and later on, I discover what it’s about.”

When I record, it’s this very precious and insular thing.

If I have a song where I hit some really high notes, I want to try to bring in equivalently low notes somewhere in there.

I’m Japanese, and I’m also white American, and neither camp wants me in their camp.

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.

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

I don’t think ‘bleak’ is a bad thing.

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.

I created this ‘ideal America.’ Finally I came to the U.S. and realised, ‘Oh, I don’t belong here, either.’

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

I have my privileges, but I do feel like at every turn there is such resistance.

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.

When you’re doing something you’re not used to, you kind of realize that you’re still a kid: even though the whole world around you sees you as an adult and you’re expected to act like an adult, you still haven’t actually grown up.

It’s very tempting, when somebody says they like this about you, to want to do that over and over.

I would love for Rivers Cuomo to listen to my music and see what he thinks.

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 think music is supposed to be shared.

I find that more and more I’m trying to entertain myself when I’m working, because I know the work’s going to go to a horrible place.

They become nothing more than the kiss of Judas, pressing a crown of thorns into your flesh.

This is because there is much more risk.

Even the disagreement over Syria is more of a tactical one than a strategic one.

People need to be more aware of how they’re affecting people.

The music industry was more oddball guys who did it for fun and now they are huge corporations that have become more structured.

When a clandestine couple kisses, it is much more likely that sex will immediately follow.

Today it’s a little bit more complicated.