I always have strong urges to sabotage myself.
MITSKII 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.
More Mitski Quotes
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Being an outsider makes you a really good writer.
MITSKI -
I’m Japanese, and I’m also white American, and neither camp wants me in their camp.
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 -
I don’t set out to write something. I more just write, and later on, I discover what it’s about.
MITSKI -
What I have a problem with is when it becomes another form of tokenization, of shrinking me into a symbol instead of a multilayered, female Asian artist.
MITSKI -
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.
MITSKI -
Oftentimes, the most important decisions I make are the ones I don’t put much thought into.
MITSKI -
I think people don’t realize how little of being an artist is making art.
MITSKI -
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.
MITSKI -
All the time. I feel like I’m not taken seriously.
MITSKI -
In my first few years of being in New York, I had a major identity crisis because I’d never stayed in one place for so long.
MITSKI -
A lot of musicians talk about how they were into music from the start; they always wanted to be musicians. It wasn’t like that for me. I didn’t think of it as a job or a career – it was just something that was constant.
MITSKI -
I don’t really listen to pop-country, but I like really, really old country that’s closer to folk. Like Johnny Cash, who is considered country.
MITSKI -
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.
MITSKI -
I would love for Rivers Cuomo to listen to my music and see what he thinks.
MITSKI