Sufjan Stevens Quotes

Stevens and Ni Morality

C.G. Jung: "The [Ni type] finds the moral problem unintelligible, even absurd, and as far as possible forbids his thoughts to dwell upon ... the moral effects which emerge from its intrinsic significance."

C.G. Jung: "[To the Ni type] the moral problem comes into being when [he] tries to relate himself to his vision, when he is no longer satisfied with mere perception ... but confronts the question: What does this mean for me and for the world?"

Stevens: "If there's any kind of morality, for me, it's about reality; what is reality? I have a hard time distinguishing what is valuable when it comes to the real world and the fantasy world."

Stevens and Inferior Se

C.G. Jung: "The unconscious personality [of the Ni type] may best be described as an [Se type] of a rather low and primitive order. Impulsiveness and unrestraint are the characters of [his] sensation."

Stevens: "I really have to live in [a] world of overstimulation. Sometimes I think it's like a drug; more is more, and you can never get enough. The older I get, the more I crave that excessive aesthetic. It's never going to satisfy me."

Stevens: "I'm a very self-conscious person, I think we all are, but I'm especially not very comfortable in my body. I always feel really weird and awkward on the street or on the stage. It has nothing to do with circumstances, it's just an ongoing psychological state, like white noise."

Stevens: "Music involves the body. ... It's a sensory experience for the audience, while [reading is] more cerebral. ... I've always believed that every time you add a sensory stimulus, you are cheapening the art form."

Stevens: "Even a very simple thing like dancing - which to anyone else would be normal and natural - is very alien and weird for me. "

Stevens: "I don't really have a domestic inclination. Even my apartment has a semblance of a storage facility. It's just stacks, there are no bookshelves, just books and piles of stamp collections and weird little sewing and knitting projects."

Stevens: "For me, the sensory pleasure of sound and music is so transcendent that I begin to distrust it and worry if it's a distraction from ordinary life."

Stevens: "A lot of [my] songs are built on beats and rhythm and movement; so, at essence, that is more about instinct. The songs themselves are about sensation ... touch, the body. ... I feel like it's a regression into more kind of primal experience. There's a lot to learn in that. I've always divided those kind of things: there's the mental self, the scholarly self; and then there's instinct, the inner beast waiting to pray on the passions. ... I see those two sides as being really ... dependent [and] symbiotic."