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.
Grimes
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.
The way that you present yourself visually totally dictates your audience and everything that anyone thinks about you.
By the time I'm 50, there is probably going to be a nuclear holocaust. I should just enjoy myself.
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.
If I'm a bad mood, I can't go on stage and smile.
The most valuable live thing for me is when people look like they're having a good time.
Removing all stimulation around you is a really positive thing in terms of stimulating your creativity.
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'm a very nervous, shy person.
The thing about music is it's not an obscure pursuit, it's a very natural thing for human beings to do. Once you put in the effort, the learning curve is very fast.
I like going crazy. And not just for art - I like extremes in general.
I was incredibly unpopular in high school but also extremely notorious.
My image seems to be so infantilized, and I don't really know why. It belittles the music.
I have a lot of Japanese friends: I grew up in Vancouver, and there's this huge Japanese population over there.
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.
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 need to be able to work for 20 or 30 hours in one go in complete darkness, alone with just the computer glow.
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'm not good at being, like, a sexy girl.
I don't own anything designer.
It's kind of like I'm Phil Spector, and I'm forcing a young girl to make pop music and perform exhaustively. Except, instead of it being someone else, that girl is also me.
When I'm making a song that's very Grimes, it just feels very insular and it feels weird to have someone else do something on it.
I'm a very unhealthy person, and Montreal is very cold, and I'm usually sick when I'm there.
I can tell really early on in a painting if I'm going to toss it or not.
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.
I like creating beauty out of scary things.
I always wanted to be really experimental.
I don't want to have to compromise my morals in order to make a living.
I'm not interested in making art unless I'm totally freaked out and worried people are going to hate it.
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.
I'm tired of being congratulated for being thin because I can more easily fit into sample sizes from the runway.
Most of my music videos were made for under $200.
I get offers to do huge-budget music videos with big production companies all the time, but I have no interest.
My set can get really screamo and aggressive, or it can be ambient and Enya-esque.
I have an intense desire to constantly make music, and I don't feel that way about anything else.
If you focus too much on development of the visual angle, it could be a detriment to what you're doing musically.
I don't even wear shoes with heels because I hate making a noise when I walk and people looking at me.
It's interesting to be a front person who is controlling the majority of the sound.
I think my sound is post-Internet.
You want people to hate you. If you're just making people happy, you're like Mumford & Sons.
I'm sad that it's uncool or offensive to talk about environmental or human rights issues.
I don't think I know anyone who has a steady job in Montreal.
I want to make Grimes a high-fashion sci-fi act.
I like to aestheticize every possible thing that can be aestheticized.
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 trained in music.
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.
