I'm an American songwriter, and I write from a very American perspective, and so did the records I grew up listening to.
— Jenny Lewis
I've always felt lonely, even if I'm in a great relationship or surrounded by my friends and family.
When you're in a band, inevitably, someone is siding with someone else, and you're fighting over something that happened in the band five years ago.
I used to be a huge collector, and my big thing was stickers.
The best shows I play, I almost don't even remember off the stage.
I'm a pretty terrible rapper. I always have been.
Sometimes things feel hopeless. Not always within my own life - but looking outward, it seems like rough times lie ahead of us. The world seems to be kind of caving in on itself in a lot of ways. But I try to look on the bright side.
I don't write songs, play music and tour, really, for anyone else but myself. It's something that I have to do to stay alive.
I scored one film by myself, which was the hardest thing I think I've ever done.
When I first started touring, we had a crappy van, and we would all share rooms. So for many years as a grown adult woman, I would share a bed with a bandmate, whether it would be Jimmy Tamborello from the Postal Service or Pierre De Reeder from Rilo Kiley, just a pillow barrier between us sleeping on the same bed.
You wouldn't want to be in a rock band - trust me.
It's pretty amazing to write under any circumstances when someone gives you an assignment to write a song, even if it doesn't get accepted. I've written songs a couple of times, some for Disney, that haven't actually ended up in their films, but then you're left with a song forever.
Rilo Kiley was a rock band, so I wanted my solo records to feel different.
I am in a constant cycle of selling my clothes at Wasteland and buying from Goodwill. Once or twice a year, I go through my closet and donate everything to Goodwill. It feels like I am recycling my fashion.
In the past, like for the last Rilo Kiley record, 'Under the Blacklight,' I wore exclusively hot pants because the themes in that record were the underbelly of Los Angeles.
As hard as I try to sound tough and dark, I still sound cute.
Sometimes you don't understand what you're going through until you're on the other side of it.
I'm a late bloomer. It's taken me a long time to find my voice, and I think all the records I've made over the years, I was finding my voice, and that's part of the process.
It sounds cheesy, but music has saved me in a lot of ways. If I had just continued acting, I don't think I would be alive.
I come from a duo, actually, quite literally. My parents are Linda and Eddie, and they had an act in Vegas called 'Love's Way.'
If I'm not crying while writing a song, I'm not doing it right.
I learn lessons with every interview I give.
You can find me at three in the morning in my living room with a glass of wine and really bad '90s trip hop beats blaring from my headphones.
I think Chris Martin is younger than I am, but when I met him, I felt like I was talking to my father. It's so strange, that feeling when someone is that famous - you assume that they are either older or better.
You never know how things are going to turn out in a movie. You can imagine a scene one way, and it can turn out to be completely the polar opposite of what you expected. You just have to roll with the punches.
Some shows suck, but I always - the show must go on. I learned it from my past as a child actor. The show must go on. You have to just keep on with it.
My true social media passion is making creepy short movies on Instagram.
I never envisioned myself as a solo artist; I was always part of a band.
The Rilo Kiley song 'A Better Son/Daughter' is my most requested song - especially for people who are at the age I was when I wrote it. It's sort of a mid-twenties lament.
If you're a songwriter, you have to do homework. You can exist for a while on the inspiration, but at some point, you have to sit down and have the discipline to write - to finish the poem, as they say.
I am a huge hip-hop fan, and growing up, I only listened to hip-hop, so I dressed accordingly.
I felt like hip-hop was my music, it was like my outsider music... but then my mom started answering our phone, 'Yo, what's up.' She was hearing me talk to my friends. I was like, 'No, mom, don't cop the hip-hop talk.'
I can parallel park pretty well - I'm a great driver.
Losing your parent is unlike anything.
I have a great work ethic - from watching Lucille Ball, not necessarily my own family.
I've gone through terrible periods of depression. But, at the core of my being, there's a strange, out-of-place optimist. Despite what I'm feeling, I'm always able to get up and do my job. Which means the world to me.
I never intended to set out and be a singer-songwriter. I just sort of became one because I put out my own record.
I come from a very uncool profession: being a washed up child actor.
I would never say anything's over forever. How could you possibly know how you feel? How could you shut the door on anything?
I'm constantly dodging people in L.A. There are some people I don't ever wanna see again, but if you live where you grew up, you're running into people constantly.
I think the idea of opening up for a massive band is always better than actually doing it, and having your name on the ticket means more than the actual set.
I'm not always as disciplined as I should be. I don't sit down and write every day, but I should.
My favorite days off on the road are typically nowhere, like Bismarck, North Dakota, and you find yourself in a mall, and you're like, 'This is awesome!'
For me personally, I just try to prove myself in my work. I'm just trying to get better at what I do, and hopefully that will impact women in music, and hopefully the girls in the crowd will see my up there as a bandleader and think, 'Wow, maybe I can do that one day.'
When I'm not working is when I tend to freak out a bit. It's hard for me to just stay home.
It's interesting how songs can evolve. Sometimes I'll write a song that feels relevant in the moment, but four years later, I don't want to sing it anymore. Then something will happen in my life, and the song becomes relevant again.
I love kids, but there's always time for them later. You can always adopt; you can have a puppy. The songs are my children.
I wouldn't call it a faux pas, but I have about 12 tracksuits. I always travel in a tracksuit. I feel it makes people happy when they see me.
I love 'Wowee Zowee.' That was the first Pavement record I bought.
I'm obsessed with old rotary phones.
