Eilish still isn’t showing down. Her second album, Happier Than Ever was released on July 30, and on Sept. 3, she’ll star in Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles, a concert film on Disney+ recorded at the Hollywood Bowl and directed by Robert Rodriguez and Patrick Osborne. So what kind of person has that kind of success? The “Bad Guy” singer is disarmingly honest, slightly strange and really, really loves music. As proof, check out our list of 75 Billie Eilish quotes below to discover what this wildly successful artist has to say about herself, music, and life.
75 Best Billie Eilish Quotes
- “I don’t see myself as a pop artist. Like, when you hear ‘pop,’ you’re like, ‘Oh, bubblegum, jumpy little girly stuff,’ and I feel like, ‘Uh-uh. That’s not me.’”
- “If I make music and people hate it, you know, whatever. I’ll die someday, and one day, they will too.”
- “Pirate was going to be my middle name, but then my uncle had a problem with it because pirates are bad.”
- “In real life, I’m a really smiley person. I smile when I talk and I laugh.”
- “I’ve always liked being busy. If I have nothing to do for a week, it just makes me mad.”
- “Nothing really scares me, to be honest.”
- “I’m not a category of a person. I’m the same person, for my whole life. I like this thing this time, and I like this thing that time.”
- “Clothing and fashion are kind of my security blanket, almost.”
- “I never thought a career as a musician was possible.”
- “I hate smiling. It makes me feel weak and powerless and small. I’ve always been like that. I don’t smile in any pictures.”
- “I don’t really get nervous that much, or if I do, only I know. It’s all inside me. I am good at hiding everything.”
- “When I was 4, I wrote a song about falling into a black hole.”
- “I’m not going to say I’m cool, because I don’t really feel that. I just don’t care at all, and I guess that’s what people think is cool.”
- “I’m trying to show everybody that I’m a girl, and I’m five foot four, and you can do anything you want, no matter your gender. It’s your world, too!”
- “I’ve always done whatever I want and always been exactly who I am.”
- “I’m gonna make what I want to make, and other people are gonna like what they’re gonna like. It doesn’t really matter.”
- “I really wanted to be a model when I was little. I loved photography, and I loved being on camera. But I was short and chubby, so I couldn’t. Anyway, being an artist is way more interesting than just being a model because it’s about you and what you want to be. You’re not being treated like a clothes hanger.”
- “I always wear the kind of stuff that makes you overheat and die.”
- “I love people talking about me; I love anybody just looking at me.”
- “I find a lot of inspiration through visuals. When I was 12, I saw Aurora’s ‘Runaway’ music video. Something inside me clicked, like, ‘That is what I want to do, no matter whether it goes anywhere or not.’”
- “I used to write random little stupid things when I was five, but then the first song I really wrote was one called ‘Fingers Crossed,’ which is on SoundCloud.”
- “Pretty much my whole life, I’ve been a performer and have loved singing and writing songs in my room for my own ears.”
- “Sometimes it’s flattering when people copy you, but sometimes it gets to a breaking point.”
- “I’m a really particular person. I want it my way.”
- “I’m super self-critical, which I think is good, because then I get exactly what I want. I’m critical of other people, too - I try not to be, though.”
- “If I’m in a bad mood, or if I’m uncomfortable, it’s probably what I’m wearing that’s making me feel that way.”
- “I have an eye for really weird things that nobody thinks about. I used to make little movies about myself and then edit them on iMovie.”
- “I think everybody deserves an equal amount of appreciation whether how old they are, but I mean, I’m cool with the praise. I’m good.
- “Don’t make me not a role model because you’re turned on by me.”
- “I’m a really artistic person, and so, with the live stuff, there’s a lot that I think is really cool. Beyonce and Rihanna have all these dancers. So with the live costumes and video costumes, I’d really like to have my vision. The way that I want people to dress is very specific. I love fashion.”
- “I play piano and ukulele, and I taught myself those things just because I wanted to play them.”
- “People are terrified of me, and I want them to be.”
- “I just really want to get music out and tour and go places I’ve never been, and just do more videos. I love photography and videography, and so I really want to direct videos when I can.”
- “Some artists just ruin their voices because they don’t know any better.”
- “There are alway going to be bad things. But you can write it down and make a song out of it.”
- “People have so much going on in their heads. I’m like, if you could write a song, you’d feel so much better!”
- “I don’t think a song should be put in a category.”
- “I wrote my first song at 12 and remember someone asking, ‘What were you going through at 12 that you could write about?’ I get what you’re saying, but 11, 12, 13 were the hardest years of my life. You learn everything. You learn how horrible things feel.”
- “I feel like I write so that people can think of it as theirs. If my song is exactly about your life right now, then it is. I don’t even want to say that it’s mine, because it’s yours.”
- “It’s really fun to put yourself into a character – into shoes you wouldn’t normally be in.”
- “Writing a song is so personal. You have to have trust in someone you’re working with; otherwise, you’re not gonna come out with something that’s really you.”
- “Words are more powerful than some noises. Noises won’t last long. Lyrics are so important, and people don’t realize that.”
- “You can write a song about being in love with someone, but you don’t have to be in love with anyone.”
- “I go through a lot of depression, and I know other people do, too, but I have an outlet that so many people don’t. If you have that inside of you and can’t get it out, what do you do?”
- “When I write, I try to become different characters.”
- “If I’m inspired to make a certain kind of song, I’m going to make that kind of song, no matter if it’s what they know me as or think I am.”
- “Lyrics are so important, but they’re really underrated.”
- “If you write in the same way over and over again, like, in the same place with the same techniques and with the same people, you’re sort of writing the same song over and over again.”
- “I really like hip-hop and rap; that’s my main influence. I really wanna be more of a hip-hop artist.”
- “I listen to music all day every day. I can’t not listen to music. It’s kind of scary how much I listen to music, but it’s what I love, and it’s all I care about, so I’m good with it.”
- “I don’t know how to function without music. When I’m not making it, I’m listening to it. It gives me courage and takes care of my mind.”
- “What makes a song last is real content from a mind that is thinking a little bit harder about certain things. A lot of artists don’t really think that hard.”
- “I grew up on the Beatles; I love Linkin Park and Green Day. I heard hip-hop for the first time at 11 and realized what I was missing.”
- “If you can’t dance to a song, it’s not a song.”
- “People think you have to go through something to write about it, and you absolutely do not. You can write about, like, a shoe. It’s a story.”
- “Sexism is everywhere, bro. I don’t know if it’s ever not somewhere.”
- “It’s rare for anyone to value the opinions of a teenage girl.”
- “In the public eye, girls and women with strong perspectives are hated. If you’re a girl with an opinion, people just hate you. There are still people who are afraid of successful women, and that’s so lame.”
- “It’s nobody’s responsibility to cover themself or restrict or restrain themself for somebody else’s, like, weak willpower. It’s not our job.”
- “I really think the bottom line is, men are very weak. I think it’s just so easy for them to lose it.”
- “Young women, we’re expected to know and do everything, and be everyone’s mom when we’re like, 15.”
- “I felt like, for so many years – and I still even feel it – as a girl, you can’t really expect to go on stage and dress like a boy and jump around and scream with the audience and mosh and stuff, and every time that happens, I feel really proud.”
- “You know, it’s infuriating. It’s hard enough to be a young woman not in the public eye, and just have lots of public eyes looking at you … let alone being famous and having a million people look at you constantly. “
- “I think it’s really cool when artists have song titles or album names that are a really conversational sentence.”
- “Being an artist doesn’t just mean you have a song. That doesn’t make you an artist. The word ‘artist’ means so many different things, and I feel like to be a real one, you really have to do it all.”
- “Time is kind of an amazing thing because you can do so much with it. I think people underestimate time… I don’t want to just sit on my phone for hours.”
- “I had a period in my life where I decided that I would never be bored again and that, if I had any free time at all, I would make plans, and I would always be doing things. It actually was great for a year or so, but then I lost all of my friends.”
- “I like to be in control of how I look and how I feel and how I act.”
- “Getting recognized is insane. It just blows my mind. Like, someone who you don’t know at all can just be like, ‘Oh my God – are you Billie?’”
- “It’s all about what makes you feel good. If you want to get surgery, go get surgery. If you want to wear a dress that somebody thinks that you look too big wearing, f**k it – if you feel like you look good, you look good.”
- “Showing your body and showing your skin – or not – should not take any respect away from you.”
- “There’s all these people who are incredibly vulnerable and would honestly do anything you say. That’s a crazy feeling. Nobody should be given the power that we’re [celebs] given.”
- “I don’t even call them fans. I don’t like that. They’re literally just a part of my life; they’re a part of my family. I don’t think of them as on a lower level than me. I don’t think I’m anything but equal to all of them. So yeah, they’re basically all of my siblings.”
- “It’s really about not wishing away the present and the past and wishing you were in the future, but just being hopeful and content with the idea of change.”
- “Even permanent things can be undone." Next, read our 150 quotes about music that celebrate the inspirational and magical power of song.
