Rachael Yamagata quotes:

Conflict is a great thing to start with. For me as a songwriter, I am constantly trying to solve problems.

Everyone is more than what you see on the cover; we all run deep and have our story.

Hopefully, my tears are worth something to the outside world.

I do have faith that something better is always coming for you.

Flute was actually my first instrument. I had a year of lessons and then stopped after feeling like I was going to faint all of the time.

I treasure my mornings. I get up early and ignore everything work-related for the first few hours. It's just me and my coffee addiction.

I used to find places in high school and college, empty rooms or spaces with pianos. Instead of going to a party, I'd play alone for hours. It became my buddy.

I wrote my first song when I was twelve on the piano.

I'm a big believer that there's a reason for everything. I'm a hopeless optimist.

In love relationships, there's such intimacy, and the potential to be the most vulnerable and honest and raw with another person. Why can't we have that transparency with everyone in our lives and reach that higher connection?

So for those of you falling in love, Keep it kind, keep it good, keep it right. Throw yourself in the midst of danger, But keep one eye open at night.

There's something about [pain] that excites me. If I'm feeling really awful about something, it's because I haven't experienced it before. There's something I need to learn from it.

I can sit and dissect for hours, and then write 50 songs about. I always find that inspiring.

As I grow older, what I find interesting is that I get experience with pain, different types of pain, and I start to see the lovely hilarity of life. Things that were once so crushing take on a different essence. I move through it at a faster rate. It's like traveling: it opens my eyes. My process is to allow myself to have it and to not judge myself or the situation too much, and then to create something with it.

Follow your instincts, and handle all with respect and diplomacy.

I don't really usually write sort of a cheerleader-type lyric.

I immediately target sadness and conflict and disruption in life.

I once heard someone doing a karaoke version of my song. That was pretty funny.

I wish you health, and more than wealth, I wish you love

If you hold on to certain things that are comfortable and maybe a bad pattern for you psychologically, then you rob yourself of the experience of the next thing that happens when you do start to let go. It's only by trusting that, and by the leaps of faith, that you remember that's true.

I'm addicted to the dynamics of relationships whether they be in love, work, between strangers on the streets, or in the world in general.

It's easy for me to be vulnerable and craft songs when I'm being a hermit in my woods loft, secluded. When I get attention for it, whether it's on stage or in life - I have sort of a love-hate relationship with all of it. That makes me feel really stark naked.

Love could solve everything.

My breaking heart and I agree, that you and I could never be, so with my best...my very best, I set you free

My own brain. When I get it out of the way, I'm fine.

Pain is a huge gift. It can expand you like nothing else. If you can embrace it and sink into it, you'll get to the point where you can bend and transform your experience of it. Having some sort of creative outlet to do that is another gift.

People who know my music think I'm the most depressed girl on the planet.

What tries to break us is endlessly fascinating to me. Joy is a whole different game to express.

Writing and performing are to me what water and movement are to sharks.