Music was the one thing that was just mine, and no one could take it from me. I created it, dictated it, and it made me not able to let go of it.

As a woman of color, I always have to be at 150 percent and better than everybody in the room to be considered competent.

I discovered I was an Asian American when I arrived in the U.S. I didn't identify as that before I came here. People started calling me that, and I started being treated in a specific way.

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

I guess you can say I 'do the Twist.' I like playful dance moves that aren't too serious.

Oftentimes, the most important decisions I make are the ones I don't put much thought into.

I wanted to take up guitar because playing piano is a little harder. Carrying a keyboard around is harder, and finding a real piano is much harder, and I wanted to play live more, so I figured a guitar would be easier to carry around.

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.

I didn't fit in anywhere when I grew up, but I was always American, so to survive, I created this 'ideal America.' Finally I came to the U.S. and realised, 'Oh, I don't belong here, either.'

When you're young is the one time when you get to indulge in being morose and take yourself most seriously.

You can be heartbroken about a relationship but also, from it, realize you are you, and you're okay with who you are or where you came from.

When you are a minority, it's your job to bend, and when you love someone, you really want to make it work. Then you start to realise, 'Oh, I'm bending a lot,' and they're just standing there existing, and I'm bending around them. But you can't blame them: they don't realise it; that's just how they already existed. It's hard.

I'm punk, but I love gold.

My personality's very obsessive-compulsive. I tend to fixate a lot.

I know for a fact that I'm problematic. I shouldn't be looked to for any kind of guidance.

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.

Growing up, I never really felt like anything was my own. I moved a lot, and I never belonged anywhere.

I have a very conveniently photographic memory of emotions - it's overwhelming, because things don't fade for me.

Being an outsider at all times is both unhealthy and useful, because you become much more objective about things.

You always want what you can't have, and that all-American thing, from the day I was born, I could never enter that dream. That all-American white culture is something that is inherited instead of attained.

I remember I took a music course in junior year of high school, and some girl brought in 'Teardrops On My Guitar,' and she was like, 'Isn't this song great?' And everyone was like, 'Who's Taylor Swift?' And now, every time I listen to Taylor Swift, I remember that moment.

I got to feel like what I'm giving the fans is 100 percent and that it's game-changing.

When I create something, it's got to be special, and it can't just be to throw something out there because I feel like I'm Missy.

Things happen in your life, and then you can write something else instead of the same three topics - like, how many times can we write about the clubs?