Jens Lekman Quotes

'Warm Bodies' ended up becoming one of the most personal relatable things I've written.

I really do pride myself on being able to help other people tell their stories and bring out the best in them. But I still, every song I'm writing, I still need to relate to it. I still need to find my true self in it, or else it'll feel dishonest. I mean, everything has a queer meaning as far as I'm concerned.

I've talked with friends about this: when you write about yourself, that's what people connect to. When you write a sermon or a lesson, that may not reach people. I've learned a lot from people who have been writing about themselves.

I don't think I could write about something I've never experienced or felt; all my songs are about things I've been through.

Everything I've written is personal - it's the only way I know how to write.

There are bits of me in all my characters.

There is always going to be a little bit of me in each character.

I think it's nearly impossible to write something fictional without having it be about yourself in some way or another.

Recording is more autobiographical than acting. It's me - either how I'm feeling then or once felt at some point in my life. It's all me.

I've always written about things that cause me to feel something.

Why my interest in writers? Well, I'm one, and many of my friends are writers. I know what it's like to write. I'm interested in the creative process. I'm fascinated by the disparity between who we are on the outside, and what we have bubbling away inside us.

It's so easy for me to do a boy-bashing pop song, but to sit down and write honestly about something that's really close to me, something I've been through, it's a totally different thing.

The way I write my songs is that I have to believe what I'm writing about, and that's why they always end up being so personal - because the kind of artists I like, they convince me, they totally win me over straight away in that thing. Like, 'Oh my God, this song is totally about me.'

When you write, no matter what, it ends up personal.

I've always seen writing as a way of telling the truth. For me, writing is about truth. I have always tried to be faithful to my own experience.

Emotional messiness is my reason for life. In acting, it's so important.

The hardest part is telling one's story. Once the story is on the page, the rest will come.

We've always written from personal experiences.

I just know what I go through, and I know how to speak on it in an interesting way.

I want everyone who's listening to know who I am and not just see me as this singer. I want them to feel connected to my story.

Mostly everything I've ever sung comes from a personal place.

I'm still writing from personal experiences, which is what people connected with in the first place.

For people who have been following me for a long time, I really hope that they can get to know me a little better, maybe get to know the softer, squishy, emotional side of me, because I usually put up a weird side, so it'll be cool to be able to open up in that way to them.

All my music is autobiographical, and that's the reason why people like my music. They know when I'm saying something on a song, I mean it. It comes from a real place and captures the realness in my life.

My writing is authentic, and whatever happens in my life is what I write about.