Sharon Van Etten Quotes

I find the greatest songs in the world come out of pain, and I don't like it! Here's what it does: It strips away all of your facade. It makes you so honest. It's cleansing.

If I write when I'm low, it will be a dark song, but I don't care. I want to be honest with myself at all times.

I feel like when I say something sad, I mean it.

If I'm kind of sad or depressed, it doesn't necessarily help me to write a song about exactly what I'm depressed about.

What's the point of a song if you can't be honest?

People actually live with their id exposed. They're not good at concealing what's going on inside.

I'm very free with all my emotions, whether it's happy, sad, mad, glad, whatever.

Anything I've ever said, I certainly was feeling at the time.

To have a songwriter that wrote so specifically what I felt to be true... I've never been much of an actor either. If something is real for me, then I can do it.

I remember keeping a lot of journals and diaries and trying to form a complete thought just based off of those immediate, raw feelings. If anything, I was conscious about how I just always wanted to be as honest as possible, no matter how vulnerable it would make me seem.

It's cool to express myself, but I've had to learn that doing interviews isn't completely therapy - spilling everything about yourself isn't healthy all the time. But I've been through things that have made me a stronger person, and if I can help some people, I will.

Never be ashamed of what or how you feel... just be honest.

I'm a big emotional mess. I try to talk about things that people don't like to talk about, especially in music. Hopefully it reaches someone and lets them access their vulnerability. That's what I want it to accomplish.

In my music and my life, I'm honest with my feelings, and people appreciate that. That's just the way I am.

Playing is just about feeling. Playing isn't necessarily about misery. Playing isn't necessarily about happiness. But it's just about letting yourself feel all those things that you have already on the inside of you, but you're all the time trying to push them aside because they don't make for polite conversation or something.

Anytime I hear songs that are so honest, whether they make the person who's singing it look good or not, there's a level of honesty that resonates with people.

I have all these friends who just love therapy, and I always say the reason that I'm absolutely not in therapy is because then I wouldn't have anything to write.

My career is based off of me talking about my emotions.

I feel as though there are things that I'm trying to do - you know, capturing truthfully some aspect of human experience - and I'm trying really hard not to be fake. And in writing, as in life, it's harder than you think.

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

A lot of the work I've done has been about being very raw and open with your emotions.

I just write about how I'm feeling at the time. If I feel like being cheeky and a bit straight up and a bit aggressive, you'll hear that in my music. If I feel like being very vulnerable and opening up about something personal, you'll hear that, too.

Saying things on paper that I would never, ever say, and saying things to myself, admitting things to myself, about myself and my personality, just putting it on paper, is how I deal with emotional pain.

I've always viewed writing as an outlet for being vulnerable and all that comes with that. You are able to let things all out.

The most confronting thing you can do is talk about your feelings and open yourself up.