Sharon Van Etten

I only write when I'm in a dark place. I hit 'record' and get it out, writing and playing my guitar at the same time.

Every time I re-perform a song, I gain some perspective.

I always had a hard time communicating my emotions. I'd retreat into my bedroom and listen to music. And when you're a teenager, you're dealing with all these hormones. It's like, 'What are these?'

Time is very weird.

I have a hard time not wearing my heart on my sleeve and answering people honestly. You know, my friends warn me that I should be more guarded 'cause sometimes I am too honest and open, but it's also just who I am.

Imperfiction' will forever be one of my favorite records and moments in time.

I'm really out of touch with myself emotionally. I've always had a hard time talking about how I feel.

The studio is a time when you can do anything that you want to. You have that freedom.

I was pretty troubled for a long time. And I didn't know that. As a kid, I never talked about my emotions. My mom gave me a journal, but I didn't know what it meant. I just wrote all the time, not even thinking about it. But it also made me feel better.

I have a lot of alter-egos: I would love to be a back-up singer for someone someday. I have an electronic side-project. I have a '90s grunge side project; I have a piano project... I have this industrial, goth-electronic song, super creepy sounding, just really dark and dreary.

Whatever your writing is about, you're really connected with it, and you can always go back to when that was. I remember everything, and time and place are like a center for me.

I go back to things all the time. It's really nice, too, like when I'm going through some kind of a writer's block, and I'm feeling uninspired, I go to some of my oldest songs from over the years and sift through them, and one thing that's very nice is to see how I've grown up a little bit. A little bit.