Grimes Quotes

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

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

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

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 don't think I know anyone who has a steady job in Montreal.

If you tell someone you're doing something innovative, they'll think you're doing something innovative.

My set can get really screamo and aggressive, or it can be ambient and Enya-esque.

I cry really easily. If I see a butterfly, I'll practically burst into tears. So it's really hard for me to yell at people, because I'll feel so guilty about it. But if I don't, then they don't take me seriously and it's this endless cycle.

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

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.

I like performing, but I usually get really sick when I'm on tour, and it's just hard.

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

It takes me probably about four hours to get into the groove [with making music]. And it's really important for me to not break the groove.

I only work at night, generally. Usually when I work [during the day] I'll black out the windows or something.

I think the internet is kind of redefining what it is to be a teenager. Because there's a lot of media that's aimed at teenagers that other people are getting into. But, conversely, pornography or stuff that's intended for adults is completely readily available to anyone, like teenagers.

I prefer making videos to making music.

My great fear is that I'm the ultimate shallow person. I think about this kind of thing a lot, and about this phenomenon in our culture where people identify themselves with their interests. I've been trying not to think about it too much. It used to really upset me when people called me "witch house."

From an early age, I knew I would be unhappy if I wasn't doing something creative.

I think my music's kind of cold, but I don't know if it's related to the weather. It might be because it's always grey [in Montreal], it's very depressing.

There aren't many other labels who I can say are that successful, and can give me as much as 4AD gives me, and still have such a great roster.

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.

It's interesting to be a front person who is controlling the majority of the sound.

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.

I think you can hear, when you listen to someone's music, whether or not they're enjoying making it - it's so great to hear music where you can tell the person making it was just having a blast. That's really important to me as far as my process goes. That's probably why my music ends up being so poppy!

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

I just watched another person I care deeply about basically turn into Gollum and my heart is broken.

The last thing I think about when I'm making music is its reception.

I want to say my life inspires my lyrics, but I also try to abstract them as much as possible because I don't want to refer to my life explicitly. I'm definitely really embarrassed by my lyrics.

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

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.

I can tell really early on in a painting if I'm going to toss it or not.

You want people to hate you. If you're just making people happy, you're like Mumford & Sons.

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

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

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 think I have serious latent Catholic guilt issues.

I don't know if I would ever have costume changes - usually I just end up taking off my shoes, I get so sweaty, and ... I just need to be comfortable.

Mariah Carey is my favorite singer because her voice sounds utterly groundless. It's not even a human voice; it almost sounds mechanical.

When an artist, or whomever, moves from their scene to the bigger pond, it starts getting crazy, because all of a sudden people don't respect you, and you have to start being a lot more aggressive than you would normally be.

I like creating beauty out of scary things.

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.

Lately I've been really into screaming a lot through delay [effects], having seven people on stage topless going crazy, stuff like that. Really in your face, but maybe more organic than choreographed dance moves.

If you look at the way people behave at shows, icons are now musicians; they are the people that we worship.

You rarely find someone who sings really well and who produces really well; it's a problem, and I just think it's a missing link in the music scene.

Art gives me an outlet where I can be aggressive in a world where I usually can't be.

I get offers to do huge-budget music videos with big production companies all the time, but I have no interest.

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

I think my sound is post-Internet.

Most of my music videos were made for under $200.

I write music better in the winter, I prefer making music when it's dark.

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

I have an intense desire to constantly make music, and I don't feel that way about anything else.

I'm a very nervous, shy person.

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 sad that it's uncool or offensive to talk about environmental or human rights issues.

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

Music is a religion to me and my friends.

One thing with Montreal is it's so cold and everyone's so poor and beer's so cheap: if you go to a show you have to brave the weather to get there. So you show up and everyone's soaking wet - there's a sense of 'I trekked through three feet of snow to get here!' I think there's a kind of camaraderie that arises out of that, that's important to me as well.

I'm actually not a particularly negative person, but I feel like most things are better when they're not actualized. The motivation that comes from wanting something is so much more driving of people than actually getting it.

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.

The groove can go for like three days - once I'm in it it will just keep going until I'm totally exhausted. But that's how I like to work, I like to be away from everyone and just get in the zone, and stay there for as long as I can keep it there.

I usually like to get people in because I don't have a band or anything. In cities where I have friends, I try to get them to come out and dance for me.

If I think about what other people are thinking when I'm making music, I just can't do it. It's too withheld - I need to go totally over the top, and then kind of clean it up a bit and make it more reasonable after the fact.

I love pop music, but I also love noise music, IDM - anything really, I get something out of most kinds of music. I just need to enjoy the process.

I always wanted to be really experimental.

My favorite music is never the music that anyone else likes, and other people's favorite songs are always my least favorite.

I'm a super-introverted person.

I've always been such a nerd.

I think if you're good at art, you'll be good at most types of art.

I've never lived outside of Canada, so I've been really cold my entire life. Most of my memories are coloured by the fact that I was really cold, just ... all the time!

Just because something might not have a deep philosophical meaning doesn't mean it's not important or relevant.

Success, for me, is a song that can deliver shivers.

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