“With this record, I needed to extract myself out of this environment of make-believe. It's something that was necessary for me to do in the wake of my mother's death — to pursue a sense of peace and serenity in spite of suffering. It's not really trying to say anything new, or prove anything, or innovate. It feels artless, which is a good thing. This is not my art project; this is my life.”

- Sufjan Stevens, True Myth: A Conversation with Sufjan Stevens, by Ryan Dombal, Pitchfork, February 16, 2015