I grew up listening to Nirvana and then went through some bad ’90s pop stuff – a lot of Australian one-hit wonders. – Courtney Barnett
Artists thrive off each other, and when you see other people doing cool stuff, it inspires you to do cool stuff. – Courtney Barnett
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. – Courtney Barnett
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. – Courtney Barnett
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. – Courtney Barnett
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. – Courtney Barnett
I played in school jazz bands and tried to start rock bands, but nobody was interested. – Courtney Barnett
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. – Courtney Barnett
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. – Courtney Barnett
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. – Courtney Barnett
I’m just not very comfortable talking about my emotions on a normal, day-to-day basis. – Courtney Barnett
The first song I wrote was called ‘You,’ and it was a love song about somebody who didn’t even exist. – Courtney Barnett
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. – Courtney Barnett
If I make a wrong decision, I worry what might have been. I stress out over very insignificant things. – Courtney Barnett
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. – Courtney Barnett
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. – Courtney Barnett
Dad sometimes sends me texts saying, ‘Just heard you on the radio, thumbs up’, or whatever. So that’s pretty cute. – Courtney Barnett
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. – Courtney Barnett
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. – Courtney Barnett
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. – Courtney Barnett
