Explore Quotes by Sharon Van Etten

I'm pursuing a degree in mental health counseling. It'll be a long journey, and I still want to do music and other creative projects.

People always ask me, 'Why do you only write about heartbreak?' I think I only write when I'm broken, so that's just what happens. It makes me feel better, but having some distance helps.

I can't read notes well, but I can hear something and sing a harmony to it automatically.

I was so broken when I did the first record. I was living in my parents' basement, I didn't know anyone. I was broken-hearted and writing this really dark record. I was at the bottom of a well.

I totally lucked out by meeting a lot of amazing people. I guess it stems from going to shows and being confident enough to meet people and be able to talk to them like a normal person rather than have my head down all the time.

Performing a song is intense. When I see people connecting, it makes it all worthwhile.

Relationships. Ugh. You have to laugh sometimes.

I'm attracted to music made by people who let themselves be emotional. They really care about what they do, and we believe in what they say.

I think, in general, I find writing to be very therapeutic and singing in itself to be really therapeutic.

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.

Time is very weird.

I was in musicals. and I was in the choir when I was younger. Before I started writing my own songs, I thought I wanted to be on Broadway, but it was nothing I ever really pursued.

I believe my songs are strong enough to stand on their own - even way back then when they were recorded badly and minimally.

I only work with people that are mysteries.

Singing a song like 'Your Love Is Killing Me,' people are worried about me. My mother called me, like, 'What's going on with you? Are you alright? I thought you were doing fine.' And I'm like, 'I am doing fine. It's just, this is what I do.'

When I write, it's to heal. It's my own self-therapy so that I don't actually feel sad all of the time.

I'm a lot more secure than I used to be.

I'm nervous performing because it's such a weird thing to do, standing on stage demanding people's attention.

You'd better have something good to say if you've got a roomful of people who've paid to see you.

Sadness isn't an emotion that most cool bands want to talk about.

I started writing for myself when I didn't know how to understand how I was feeling, and I didn't know how to talk to people about it, so I would break into the subconscious to try and understand what I was going through.