Courtney Barnett Quotations

When I was on the road with Billy Bragg, it was cool because I was doing the whole thing solo and travel a lot by myself, which I quite like. I mean, I love being with friends, but it's kind of nice having that alone time.

We're a very success-driven culture, which is such a downer at times. Even if you don't think that way, you're forced to think that way. Everyone is trying to subconsciously out-do everyone else.

Leaving the house is a big enough occasion for me, so getting on a plane and flying across the world and playing to a room full of people is just out of this world.

Obviously, the more you tour, the more comfortable you get.

I grew up listening to hipster jazz and classical records... we went and watched ballet and orchestras - lots of cool stuff. Which I'm really grateful for - it's pretty nice being introduced to that when you're little.

I have a normal life; I don't do anything crazy.

I hate going anywhere. I'm really excited to travel and play all these different places, but if I had it my way, I would stay inside, maybe go to the back garden or walk around the corner to the shops. That's it.

People are like, 'Wow you started your own record label,' and treat me like I'm some sort of innovative genius, when I'm not at all. You've got the Internet and music - you put them together, and people hear your music.

Sometimes I have something stuck in my head and that directs the rhyme that I'm writing with.

I grew up listening to Nirvana, and then went through some bad 90s pop stuff - a lot of Australian one-hit wonders.

I definitely grew up on a lot of American bands. I didn't really know that there were any decent Australian bands until I was around 20.

The first song I wrote was called "You" and it was a love song about somebody who didn't even exist. I remember them all because I used to always write terrible poetry. I keep all my notebooks.

Every time I write a song it feels like it could be the last one I do, or it always feels like a fluke.

I try to take notes of things that happen that I think are important or interesting or just little tidbits here and there that happen in life. And some of it's even just one line or like a saying and I just go off that.

I try to write a lot and my process is kind of back and forth. I procrastinate a lot so when I do sit down to write, I'm pretty lazy at it. And it's such a frustrating thing sometimes - writing - when you don't do it all the time, you get that thing in your head that you have nothing to talk about and you can't write songs.

The music, I think, is just as important as the lyrics; it portrays the emotion of the song. I play the kind of music that I want to listen to.

I've never really had a certain style of music in mind that I make, or am really adamant on how something should sound, but I like the process of not knowing, of just seeing what happens and what comes out.

I reckon that growing up, listening to so much different music, I think over time I just kind of sucked it all in and it probably comes back out through my music.

People should be free to take whatever they want from music and I think that over time I realized that different people always find different things in my songs, which is really good.

I think that if people get my music, then they get what my message is.

I don't know anything except being female, so I don't know the opposite of it.

I don't really feel like a rock artist, but I guess in the small category of the world of music genres, that's where I fall in because I've got a guitar.

Festivals are always fun. I went to a lot when I was younger and had money to go to them. I like playing at festivals. They're always kind of like a big, crazy circus.

If I'm not touring I'd just be at home, just driving - I'm kind of at a loss for how that stuff works.

When I was a teen, or like 18 to early 20s, I used to go to festivals all the time. I'd save all my money.

It was cool at the rock camp - girls could just be themselves and they could be silly, they could roll around on the floor playing guitar.

I think even though things are changing a bit, we still kind of tend to grow up with girls being like, 'Don't be too loud, don't be too rude, don't be too naughty,' or whatever, to act a certain way.

I think that a good song is catchy, and a great song is not catchy - but it has a deeper meaning.

It's easier to be angry. It's harder to be positive and happy, I reckon.

There's lots of interesting stuff happening in the world. Lots of good and bad things, and there's interest in music still, which there always will be, which is always a good thing.

Artists thrive off each other, and when you see other people doing cool stuff, it inspires you to do cool stuff.

I started writing songs when I started learning guitar.

An album is a thing you take time out and go work on.

I think everyone's so scared of other people judging them.

If I make a wrong decision, I worry what might have been. I stress out over very insignificant things.

I don't like to overcook songs.

I liked the idea of being a photographer, just that you take this one picture of this one thing that'll never happen again - it's a bit weird when you think about it.

What's funny about the slacker thing, people project an image of what they think a musician is: young, slack, unemployed - like a really romantic idea of a poet, writer or musician - which isn't really true a lot of the time. I don't reckon you would know anything about me if I wasn't moderately hard-working.

When I started Milk! Records, it was a pretty non-profit making venture.

Everyone writes in whatever way feels comfortable to them. People write songs because maybe they don't feel so comfortable talking about whatever matters.

Dad sometimes sends me texts saying, 'Just heard you on the radio, thumbs up', or whatever. So that's pretty cute.

I just want to be self-sustainable so that I can continue to just do what I like to do and not make a million dollars. Nobody needs a million dollars.

I keep a journal and just kind of take notes. I don't really so much sit down and write songs - I just take a lot of notes, and sometimes I sit down and put them all together.

I like reading biographies because most of them are slightly similar, and it's voyeuristic, looking into someone's life.

I'm just not very comfortable talking about my emotions on a normal, day-to-day basis.

I'm self-deprecating - I spend a lot of time telling myself that things are OK, as opposed to having to tell myself to get over things.

If I write something down, it's normally just a sharp one-liner.

I never planned to be a professional artist - I just want to be a sustainable artist. I guess they're the same thing if you look at them from a different angle.

I'm very hands on with my music - I do all the artwork and everything myself - and the songs I write aren't necessarily the most commercial.

I really want a Christmas in New York one year, when it's snowing. Like, it's Christmas morning, and you have a fight with someone, and you run down the street, and it's snowing, and you can't find them.

I just get bored really quickly and want to push myself to the next level.

I played in school jazz bands and tried to start rock bands, but nobody was interested.

You can't read when you're traveling with other people; it always feels a bit rude.

The first song I wrote was called 'You,' and it was a love song about somebody who didn't even exist.