I'm not interested in making art unless I'm totally freaked out and worried people are going to hate it.
— Grimes
I've seen Animal Collective live, and I suffered permanent hearing loss from that show!
I like performing, but I usually get really sick when I'm on tour, and it's just hard.
I'm not good at being, like, a sexy girl.
I'm a very nervous, shy person.
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.
Success, for me, is a song that can deliver shivers.
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.
I think if you're good at art, you'll be good at most types of art.
If you tell someone you're doing something innovative, they'll think you're doing something innovative.
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 need to be able to work for 20 or 30 hours in one go in complete darkness, alone with just the computer glow.
If I'm a bad mood, I can't go on stage and smile.
There's definitely a solitary aspect to not having a band, and there are times when I wish that I did.
I like creating beauty out of scary things.
I don't own anything designer.
When I first started out, I was making really slow, psychedelic ambient music because it was all I could do.
Most of my music videos were made for under $200.
By the time I'm 50, there is probably going to be a nuclear holocaust. I should just enjoy myself.
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.
I think I have serious latent Catholic guilt issues.
I'm a very unhealthy person, and Montreal is very cold, and I'm usually sick when I'm there.
I don't think I know anyone who has a steady job in Montreal.
I love a lot of very sentimental music, but I shouldn't necessarily be the person who makes it.
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.
Fashion can be a really powerful tool, but it's also a place where you can be totally humiliated and have your power taken from you.
I like to aestheticize every possible thing that can be aestheticized.
If you look at the way people behave at shows, icons are now musicians; they are the people that we worship.
I'm not, like, a natural performer. It's sort of a thing that I've had to learn to do.
The way that you present yourself visually totally dictates your audience and everything that anyone thinks about you.
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.
I listen to a lot of medieval music.
I want to make Grimes a high-fashion sci-fi act.
My set can get really screamo and aggressive, or it can be ambient and Enya-esque.
I get offers to do huge-budget music videos with big production companies all the time, but I have no interest.
You want people to hate you. If you're just making people happy, you're like Mumford & Sons.
Basically, I'm really impressionable and have no sense of consistency in anything I do.
Removing all stimulation around you is a really positive thing in terms of stimulating your creativity.
I just can't perform well unless I'm wearing jeans.
The thing is, I really like working. If I sit around too much, I get really bad anxiety.
Especially with music, people want confidence.
I can tell really early on in a painting if I'm going to toss it or not.
I want to make an a cappella record to release for free.
There are a lot of musicians I've met on Twitter where it was like, 'Hey, I like your music' - and then I ended up meeting them and it turned into a friendship.
Music is a religion to me and my friends.
I'm not trained in music.
From an early age, I knew I would be unhappy if I wasn't doing something creative.
I think my sound is post-Internet.
I've always been such a nerd.
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.
