Michelle Zauner Quotes

Michelle Zauner

Profession : Singer

Birth : March 29, 1989

My relationship to music is such an essential part of who I am, and was a big part of my relationship with my mom.

Michelle Zauner

My dad and I actually don't speak anymore. It's still something that I'm trying to figure out and I definitely don't have all of the answers to.

Michelle Zauner

I was always being told to calm down, to chill out, to slow down. I was a bad toddler, I was a bad child, I was a bad teenager.

Michelle Zauner

I've been working with my stylist for a long time, Cece Liu. We've gone from buying and returning clothing, to this point where maybe finally a designer will dress me without me having to buy and return it.

Michelle Zauner

The biggest takeaway from a memoir is that you have to play fair. Within the first draft, I was writing very angrily because I had a lot of resentment and a lot to process. Through revision is where a lot of learning happened and a lot of forgiveness happened.

Michelle Zauner

Growing up, there were stereotypes being put onto me as an Asian person that I had no control over, and that made me extremely uncomfortable.

Michelle Zauner

I'm obviously a poptimist. I especially like pop music that isn't formulaic and has depth to it.

Michelle Zauner

I try to not beat myself up about anything. I think that's the biggest thing.

Michelle Zauner

My main memory of 'Soft Sounds' was that I was so convinced that 'Psychopomp' was this fluke - I had this real pressure of avoiding the sophomore slump.

Michelle Zauner

When my mom was sick and in the hospital, I did for the first time feel really bad that a lot of men aren't taught how to take care of other people very well. It's not as important of a skill for them as other things, in the same way that I really resent not being given a toolbox when I was younger.

Michelle Zauner

One thing that I've always tried to do is create lifts - the moment that you have a rush of feelings. That's always something that I'm trying to communicate in music, and particularly the style of music that I write for Japanese Breakfast: I'm always trying to build things up into each other.

Michelle Zauner

I think something I explore a little bit in my music is how there's this majestic, natural beauty in the Pacific Northwest, but also this kind of underlying eeriness.

Michelle Zauner

I was completely shocked - two Grammy nominations. I've said it out loud to myself about 100 times.

Michelle Zauner

I think growing up, I didn't ever attempt to define my Koreanness. It was just this intrinsic part of me.

Michelle Zauner

I can't enjoy the rush of how magical of an experience it is to have people listen to you, and relate to you, and have this type of attention and understanding.

Michelle Zauner

I have naturally always been a grossly oversharing type of person.

Michelle Zauner

When I started doing press after college, I never got asked about my racial identity; I was asked more about being a girl in music.

Michelle Zauner

I've been lucky to come up when there's such a huge explosion of women, and especially Asian women, in music.

Michelle Zauner

I never really wanted to be a journalist, honestly. I always wanted to be a writer, and I thought the only way to apply that interest was with journalism - when you're young and you want to be a writer, it seems like the most practical thing to do with those types of ambitions.

Michelle Zauner

I was a late bloomer when it came to reading. My parents didn't really read. Neither one of my parents went to college. I did not grow up with any literature in the house at all.

Michelle Zauner