Alessia Cara quotes:

I feel New York is too crazy for me, especially when you go to Times Square.

YouTube was a way for people to hear me and for me to say, "Hey, I can sing this song, I'm not in front of you yet because I'm too shy, but here's how I sound for now."

I've now learned how to do it, I can write anywhere. I'm the type of person that will get a random idea and then I'll have to write it down and then continue on it. It can be anywhere. It doesn't have to be a set place.

I feel people are seeing me as a true artist rather than a singer, or an entertainer, or a girl who just makes songs.

If I'm experiencing a different thing every day and seeing a new environment every day, it can create a different mood or different feeling.

I want everything, no matter what concept or genre, to feel real, because it is real. I want to keep making real music, I hope people remember me for that, that's a good thing to be remembered for.

It's really great that people are seeing me as a credible person. That alone is great. And the fact that people make fan accounts for me and recognize me now sometimes is really strange and cool.

The fact that I'm getting appreciated and praised alone is a crazy moment because I never thought it would happen.

Stay true to who you are, even though that sounds cliché. It's something that's important - doing what feels right for you.

As a kid I would always be in my bedroom constantly staring at the same four pink walls in it, aspiring to do all of these things. I had big dreams, and my dreams were bigger than what my life was at the time. I didn't understand why my life wasn't more interesting, but I was so oblivious to life outside of my bedroom because I was always there. I had to go about living my dreams.

With different scenarios and different places, I think it's easier for me to get inspired; I'm seeing different things.

I think patience is the best thing to try to embrace.

The fact that people are embracing me so well as a new artist and being taken so seriously is something I'm really surprised by.

No matter what I put out, no matter what genre - because I feel like I'm going to experiment with everything - I hope people will see that it's true to me, that it's honest, and nobody ever thinks that I'm inauthentic.

It's hard to be taken seriously if you're a young, female artist making pop music; you never know how people are going to react.