Quotes About Expression

I love jeans, T-shirts, and things you can jazz up and down, a bit of a mish-mash.

I don't want to feel like the cool kid in the crowd who doesn't want to do what the artist's saying. I want to be so in awe of the artist that I'm literally jumping up and down, even if I've got on brand new Louboutins.

My most successful song was 'Language' and I think partly because it's a nice, dancey record, but I'll see people cry in the audience to that song, and that's so much more interesting to me than making someone just jump up and down.

I think for us up-and-coming artists, once you're out there, once you've put stuff up, once people know who you are, once you discover who you are, we're all in the same boat: it's down to whether people appreciate the music or not.

I wrote 'Jungle' in my bedroom when I was having a manic time with a particular girl. Everyone thinks it's this really upbeat song, but it's not; it was just a really manic time, so I wrote a song about it.

I find sadness and strife to be so much more interesting with an upbeat melody.

So I'm not naturally happy all the time, all upbeat. People that know me will tell you that.

Happy songs are very difficult to write. How many truly great upbeat songs are there?

I suppose there must be some way in which I'm compelled to show some side of myself - or of people - that's paranoid and fraught and beleaguered and downtrodden, just as Tom Cruise wants to show that he's terrifyingly upbeat and terrifyingly heroic all the time.

The songs, if I write alone in a room, end up being a little more quiet, a little more subdued. If I play with other musicians or percussive instruments, it might end up being a little more upbeat.

Music is life. Music defines peoples' experience on this planet. Name one time in your life that wasn't punctuated by the music you listened to at the time. When people are down, they listen to music that commiserates that emotion. When people are amped up, they listen to more upbeat, loud songs.

I've been this voice of a lot of upbeat dance tracks, but people don't really know me.

It is really hard to write something high-energy and upbeat on acoustic guitar.

It's always important for me to say something with my music, even if the deeper message is hidden inside of what sounds like a fun, upbeat song.

I don't like crying. I'm a country boy, and we're the product of our upbringing. As a boy, I was told that men don't cry.

My upbringing and my daily day-to-day struggles and emotions make up most of my music.

Singing has been part of my upbringing.

I was very aware of performers who have a persona, whether it's Siouxsie Sioux or Patti Smith or Lydia Lunch, and I'm just this middle-class girl coming from a more conventional upbringing, this California person. But in a way I felt like it's important to represent the normal.

I'm a country boy, and we're the product of our upbringing. As a boy, I was told that men don't cry.

I did improv for about 10 years professionally, and before that, I had done it in high school as part of an improv team. It was definitely a big part of my upbringing.

I'm a free spirit and that definitely comes from my upbringing, so it's definitely shaped me as an artist.

I think, as musicians, our music should be who we are. Sometimes it's not - it's someone else's. All heartfelt music and all honest music, it's who we are. Of course, our upbringing has everything to do with it.

You're born with a certain love of something. Music was my first love, and that's the world I work from. Growing up, I was surrounded by artists, so my upbringing supported this lifestyle.

I've always had a little bit of darkness, and I've always been someone who was grieving. I had kind of had a tumultuous upbringing living in an abusive home, so for me, writing has always been a point of catharsis.