Miami is just really fun whenever I go there. It's like this post-apocalyptic Barbie world: everything is pink, and there're palm trees everywhere. But then there are also all these people in crazy sunglasses, warehouses with sick parties where all the girls are covered in spikes and black leather. It's a very weird place.

I feel like vocals are to music what portraits are to painting. They're the humanity. Landscapes are good and fine, but at the end of the day everyone loves the Mona Lisa.

The way that you present yourself visually totally dictates your audience and everything that anyone thinks about you.

I'm tired of being considered vapid for liking pop music or caring about fashion as if these things inherently lack substance or as if the things I enjoy somehow make me a lesser person.

I'm not good at being, like, a sexy girl.

The most valuable live thing for me is when people look like they're having a good time.

It's obviously funny to be a meme, so I could be down with it in that regard, but it also belittles one's art.

I like creating beauty out of scary things.

You don't just have to be influenced by rock, or goth, anymore. It's okay to say, 'My influences are Tin Pan music from Bali and Rihanna.' There are still so many combinations that haven't been done yet.

It's kind of like I'm Phil Spector, and I'm forcing a young girl to make pop music and perform exhaustively. Except, instead of it being someone else, that girl is also me.

There used to be a lot of industry in Montreal, and now there's not, so it's really easy to get huge, empty spaces where you can practice and make music or make art for very, very cheap.

I believe the human mind is a very fallible thing, but it's the only thing that I can really know, I guess.

I start a lot of songs and throw them out because the energy is not right. It's almost like the file becomes cursed. I have to delete it.

If I'm a bad mood, I can't go on stage and smile.

I don't want to have to compromise my morals in order to make a living.

By the time I'm 50, there is probably going to be a nuclear holocaust. I should just enjoy myself.

I was incredibly unpopular in high school but also extremely notorious.

I don't own anything designer.

I listen to a lot of medieval music.

If I went on 'American Idol,' I would definitely be kicked out immediately.

As a producer, I'm trying to challenge myself to just make something that is of a professional quality - not necessarily pop music, but maybe in the sense that Nine Inch Nails is professional quality.

Removing all stimulation around you is a really positive thing in terms of stimulating your creativity.

I'm tired of being congratulated for being thin because I can more easily fit into sample sizes from the runway.

I've seen Animal Collective live, and I suffered permanent hearing loss from that show!

I truly love 'Gangnam Style.' I guess it's a meme. I feel like it's one of the few times where the meme and the quality combines nicely.

I like going crazy. And not just for art - I like extremes in general.

The thing about music is it's not an obscure pursuit, it's a very natural thing for human beings to do. Once you put in the effort, the learning curve is very fast.

I went through my adolescence having this revelatory experience - I can have any music I want, and I can get it immediately. For me and for a lot of people I know, there's this musical eclecticism that happened.

I'm a very nervous, shy person.

I just can't perform well unless I'm wearing jeans.

My manager lives on my block; four of the apartments in my apartment complex of seven are people I know. It's a really close-knit community, and almost everyone on these few blocks are artists or graphic designers, because we live right on the cusp of a warehouse district.

If you focus too much on development of the visual angle, it could be a detriment to what you're doing musically.

I need to be able to work for 20 or 30 hours in one go in complete darkness, alone with just the computer glow.

Usually I perform with dancers.

I have a lot of Japanese friends: I grew up in Vancouver, and there's this huge Japanese population over there.

It's really hard to be on stage and packing your gear when people who just saw you play are in the room, because they all just want to talk to you.

I'm not interested in making art unless I'm totally freaked out and worried people are going to hate it.

I can't censor myself; it's really important for me to say how I feel.

When I'm making a song that's very Grimes, it just feels very insular and it feels weird to have someone else do something on it.

I like to aestheticize every possible thing that can be aestheticized.

I'm just very obsessed with Japanese stuff in general.

I think I have serious latent Catholic guilt issues.

I want to make Grimes a high-fashion sci-fi act.

There's definitely a solitary aspect to not having a band, and there are times when I wish that I did.

Basically, I'm really impressionable and have no sense of consistency in anything I do.

My image seems to be so infantilized, and I don't really know why. It belittles the music.

I'm a super-introverted person.

I don't even wear shoes with heels because I hate making a noise when I walk and people looking at me.

I always wanted to be really experimental.

In America there's lot of cool cities, but in Canada there's, like, well, Vancouver, Toronto and Halifax may be cool, but they're so expensive. Montreal is the only city that's affordable but also has buses and culture.