Saying that something is accessible gives it this implication that people need something, and thinking that we know what people need or want is really unpleasant. I don't like to think that way, like, predicting what it is that the people want.

I really write at home on my own, and the demos themselves are very similar to the final recordings in a lots of ways.

The Beatles, even Radiohead, all of my favorite stuff I'd play on the piano. But it was all very secret - for me, for fun. I wasn't going to record myself playing those songs, and it never occurred to me to write a song of my own.

I don't think all music that is considered 'avant-garde' is bad, but it's definitely elitist. I hope my music is not that.

I don't consider myself supremely talented, but I really like to try things and sift through it and see what mess I made.

I say most of my music is very trial-and-error.

I don't know how well I work in traditions. I don't know if it's just the way I listened to music growing up and never having my foot in one particular world, and just wanting to do my own thing.

I don't think I'll ever become a pop star.

I try to not think too much about how people are receiving my music. And I'm not really famous enough that it's a problem.

The meaning of the words in my songs are very important to me. But what's most important to me is that the music works.

'Betsy' is one of my favorites because it is the one to which I've imposed the least clear narrative. To me, it's so much more about the feeling - desperation - than any kind of story at all. There's very little imagery or character development; it's just about a deep and desperate search for something.

I don't often meet with strangers and feel okay about collaborating with them.

I thought I was gonna get a doctorate in composition or be a composer and be at a university for the rest of my life, mostly because my parents are academics, and that was the logical thing to do.

I really like being home. I like being comfortable, and I'm not a very dramatic person.

I don't ever like to see paparazzi much, but I have seen them, and I guess anyone who's seen them knows how scary they are.

I like talking about my music.

When you make music on your own for so long, you get used to just doing whatever you want.

I listen to the timbre of the music, and I fit my voice to blend with that timbre.

I do develop characters for songs, and I think of everything as storytelling, in a way. But I don't plan out what they're going to sound like. I just sing over what I've done.

I was in school for four years writing music to please my teachers. That was not music I liked. And when I make music that isn't for something I want to make, and it's to please other people, it's - the outcome is really bad.

There's a lot psychologically going on in boxing... I think I relate to some of it. I have a respect for it. It's like performing, but it's also this crazy, self-destructive thing.

If you've ever seen paparazzi go after a celebrity, it's really freaky.

I really love working with Ramona from Nite Jewel. We've kind of grown up together.

I take music very seriously, but it's important to me that my music is - I don't know if 'intuitive' is the word, but there's a really important element of something kind of mysterious. It's not academic or esoteric.