Top 75 Quotes & Sayings by Aldous Harding

I don't think about why I do what I do, or why I started doing what I do, because I'm so obsessed with doing it right now, and what it means to me right now.

It's not a secret that I'm, like, 12 different people rolled into one. Like a lot of people are.

When it comes to a specific sound, I don't feel like there's something I need to worry about. I'd much rather do something creative and credible. Like, 'Who am I? What am I trying to say? What do I stand for?' I stand for all of it, because I feel all of it, like everybody.

I'm actually quite a shy person and it's becoming clearer to me. Sometimes I would like to disappear, maybe only for an hour.

I've got a bad rap for not being more charismatic between songs.

I think about it as not so much 'I need to get it out of me,' it's not that my thoughts are poison, I just want to write good music.

I'm trying to know who I am and be honest about it.

Just like using an instrument, a song calls for different things.

I'm just focused on getting to the end of each show and feeling like we've done a good job when we walk off stage. And a perfect show isn't necessarily about making the audience feel good. I know I've done my job well if I've made people feel... interesting. I like to leave them a little stunned.

It's funny. I change depending on what I'm around, and who I'm around. I've always been like that.

When I discovered metaphor and what it meant, I got really excited. That was what really pushed me through into music.

I can be anything.

When you're young and starting out, a lot of artists think they know exactly who they are. There are others who come out in someone else's skin. They learn to take it off bit-by-bit and work out the core of what they're trying to say.

With some things, it's not that I like doing them; it's more that I like having done them. I like to look back and see that I've made a nice thing.

I'm actually hilarious.

I've always been, like a lot of people, driven by fear. Always focusing on the fire on the rope, as opposed to what the rope is coming from.

I don't need to hide behind anything because I'm more comfortable with myself.

As a kid I remember being frightened all of the time, and kind of sad. I was certainly troubled. But a lot of people were, y'know? I don't really know how to measure my trouble against somebody else's.

One of my least favourite gigs was a festival. There weren't many people there and they were all talking.

I had a little radio next to the bed and I'd just listen to the top 10 - I mean, it was crap but I was young - and I would get up in the dark with the moon coming in through the window and I would just dance in my pajamas in the dark to the top 10. I didn't have a CD player... so it was kind of all I had, you know?

We all want the same thing, love and acceptance. That's pretty much it. And what I've learned is that unless I'm happy with my side of the nickel, it can change violently - quickly.

Designer' is meant to mean whatever it means.

I don't really like to talk about what my songs are about.

I enjoy doing the thing that I find interesting really well.

You should see my stepdad's face when he's lifting something. It's the scariest thing I've ever seen! So you can't expect, just because I'm a potentially pretty person, that I won't allow myself to try out emotional states that might make me look ugly to some people.

There are very few things in the world that make me feel a feeling, really.

When I was making my first record, I think I felt slightly trapped by my mind and my genre. I think in one way, that archaic language I was using came from a kind of mild obsession with the devil.

All I ever wanted to do was to do something interesting.

I'm focused on my future. I'm ignoring my past, apart from the bits that I draw from to help me focus on my future.

You know, we've had some pretty rough festival stages.

I spend... too much time... in my own head.

I'm optimistic but I'm also not stupid.

I think a bit of mystery is good, and I used to feel like an eccentric person pretending to be normal. But I am actually just a normal person seeming eccentric, by what I'm putting myself through.

My family used to put on a small folk festival.

If you want to do this, you've got to last. You've got to be well enough to carry your ideas. I'm not saying I've got great ideas, but if I do I need to be able to deliver them.

I find that comforting and an equally purposeful way to think, that there's lots of ways to flex both your strengths and your weaknesses.

My head is full of songs I'm writing now, and things I am thinking now. I'm not very good at drawing on things that have happened, things I think might happen, or things I want to happen. I'm very much in right now.

I don't know a lot about art and music culture.

I made a commitment to myself that I'd stick at this and not let weakness in too quickly, that I'd do the best shows I could and make the best songs I can make.

I'm not much of a fan-girl.

I think people are particularly interested to see who the real me is, but... different stories call for different approaches and you change based on the experience you want that person to have.

We've played quite a few festivals now. We can take care of it, no matter where we are.

I'm not afraid to look stupid and I'm not afraid to look like I'm trying too hard.

I think there's strength in seeing somebody who's not necessarily winning at life... to make something that makes people feel like they've won when they hear it.

If people say to me, 'So, what were you doing in Dubai in that song?' or they spend ages comparing me to some other singer, I just shut down, I guess.

If someone says to me that 'Horizon' is an anti-feminist anthem, I have to tell them, 'No, that's not right.' But I'm not interested in unpicking my music for people. Everybody has different reference points.

It was definitely a really lovely thing for me, doing 'Jools.'

I'm definitely not above wanting to be liked. Because, I mean, that feels less... lonely? But to be honest, because it was never my dream, I live quite a pressure-less existence, y'know. And of course, that's not true, but it's partly true.

I tend to overdo things.

So, when I was eight or nine my mom's friend gave her a big purple bag full of cassettes and I found Seals and Crofts' 'Summer Breeze'... When I found it I stopped going through the bag because I was like, well, I'm not going to find anything better than this. I just thought it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard.

It's been a very strong force for me over the years. I don't know exactly why. For some people, fear can be a very useful thing. They can use it to recognise there's something missing, and heal themselves. But fear can also destroy some people. I think I'm the first type of person. I'm pretty anxious, always thinking 'what if?' about the bad stuff.

In my mind, I was never going to have the things I wanted if I played music for a living, unless I became a rock star.

I'm one of those people who's always changing. There's nothing wrong with it but it means I am a hard person to hold onto, I guess.

Wales is a lot like New Zealand.

My music's doing things, out there in the world, and that's a very positive feeling, you know? I haven't had a job I've been this good at or this excited about since I was a dog groomer!

I'm So Sorry' is probably one of my favorite songs that I've written... I wrote it very quickly and confidently. And then I didn't question it.

For like four or five months of my life I was too scared to like, move around and reach out for things because I was worried that I'd my hands would run into glass, like I could reach up and if I reached up and knocked on the air it would make a noise. I couldn't look at the sky because I was worried that I see a crack.

I like 'The Simpsons' like everybody else. But yeah - people think I'll always be super intense.

I want to be well enough to enjoy the things I've made.

I like reading things where someone's looked at what I do with some honesty, and maybe been challenged by it, and they have something to say that shows they've thought about it, even if they don't necessarily like it.