Agnes Obel

I don't have a classical-music mentality. I haven't been taught that way, and it doesn't fit my character, either.

I learned that music should be fun and should be a way to express yourself - that there aren't really any rules.

I wish my parents had been more strict and made me learn more instruments.

It's good to like yourself, and that only comes from hard work, from doing. But vanity is dangerous; it can trip you badly.

But the battles against loneliness that I fought when I was 16 are very different from those I fought when I was 27, and those are very different from the ones I fight at 44.

Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth.