Interview Quotes

The Genesis of "Radical Optimism" and Artistic Vulnerability

"By writing these songs, it's a form of therapy for me. It's just such a vulnerable thing to do is write your thoughts down into melody and then have it be consumed by other people."

— Dua Lipa • 00:36:37

"That is the perfect description of what it is to be a true artist. It's funny when we think about how the world greeted Dua Lipa when she first arrived. The song sounded so big, the performances were so polished and people kept saying things like, she's born to do it, like a ready-made superstar. But what I learned when I sat down with Dua in London recently to talk about her latest album, Radical Optimism, is that this has not been some predestined journey to greatness. Dua has pushed through enormous amounts of criticism and self-doubt where the story can be told. And I think it's going to surprise you."

— Interviewer • 00:37:42

"We're doing a tell-all. This is my first time talking about anything, album title, the record, the songs individually."

— Dua Lipa • 00:39:19

"It's a collaboration. I always used to think when I first started doing this stuff that it was like I asked the questions and someone answered them and it was a simple trade. And it's not. It's actually a dance. Yeah. When it's done well, it's a dance."

— Interviewer • 00:39:53

"Radical optimism in the way that I see it is this idea of rolling with the punches. Of not letting anything get you down for too long. Of always seeing the positive side of things. Of being able to grow and move forward and change your perspective regardless of what's happening in your life. Whether it's heartbreak, whether it's a friendship, whether it's a relationship, whether it's just growing and seeing things differently. I think it's a big part of maturing and growing up."

— Dua Lipa • 01:00:25

"You say, I'm scared. That's the first thing you say. I'm scared. And I thought it was such an amazing and interesting vulnerable way to begin your story on camera anywhere. Especially a place like Fader, where everyone's just sort of puffing their chest out trying to kind of be on Fader. Yeah. And you were like, I'm scared."

— Interviewer • 01:15:05

"Yeah, it's daunting. It's nerve-wracking. I think finally I'm at a place in my career where I feel really confident. It took me so long to get to this place. And I'm scared is exactly how I felt at that point in time. Especially when I was putting out my first record. I felt like I was strapped to a rocket. I had no idea what was happening. Eyes closed. Just jumping into whatever experience was thrown at me."

— Dua Lipa • 01:16:02

"With this album, I feel like I've managed to put so much more honesty out there and be really open in a way that I don't think I've ever had the chance to."

— Dua Lipa • 01:26:30

"Radical optimism in the way that I see it is this idea of rolling with the punches. Of not letting anything get you down for too long. Of always seeing the positive side of things. Of being able to grow and move forward and change your perspective regardless of what's happening in your life."

— Dua Lipa • 01:00:25

"Perspective is an interesting word. You know, I don't think it comes naturally to, especially at this point in your life. Like, what does perspective mean to you?"

— Interviewer • 01:42:12

"Emotional maturity, in a way. Emotional maturity, in a way. I think my job has given me the opportunity in so many amazing ways to, I guess, grow up before my time, feel things completely differently, experience the world in a different way. And so I feel like emotional maturity has also come from the situations that I've been thrown in."

— Dua Lipa • 01:42:41

"The very first page, it says, Radical Optimism."

— Dua Lipa • 01:54:51

"Yeah, I knew the title for Radical Optimism. And it was like a term that my friend told me. I was doing an interview with him and he was like, you know what the world needs is radical optimism. And I lived with that thought for so long. And it just became more and more prevalent as time went on."

— Dua Lipa • 01:59:21

"Illusion was the first song we wrote. Wow. And that really kicked us off. Like I think when we wrote that song, it also just gave us confidence as a group, you know? That we're going to have fun. It's like, okay, if this is what we can get on the first day, what can we get?"

— Dua Lipa • 02:13:30

"So on the second day, you wrote the album Closer."

— Interviewer • 02:15:55

"But it's happy. I don't know. It feels like a real full 180, maturing, seeing almost like my ghost on the other side and being like, wow, you've grown so much from an experience to be able to see things from that perspective."

— Dua Lipa • 02:24:16

"These Walls. This is 16th of January, 2023. It was a good day. It was a good day."

— Dua Lipa • 02:43:04

"These rooms, they capture things and they hold onto things. And, I mean, I think that song is a really good example of, like, you know, addressing the inevitable."

— Interviewer • 02:50:38

"The last thing I wrote was the middle eight in the song Falling Forever. And I think, yeah. That was it. That's looking like it's the last thing I've written."

— Dua Lipa • 02:55:55

"It's a big, my Saturn return is a big growing. That's your Saturn return. That's my Saturn return in a notebook. Right there in a notebook."

— Dua Lipa • 03:02:39

"I always think execution from any, from anybody who's, who's doing that is the greatest gift, because I think the creative part of it is the safe space. This is a safe place. When you're in here for, what, was it a year and a half? A year and a half. Yeah. Yeah. And you've earned the right to take your time. What a beautiful place to be able to be self-aware and to analyze how you're feeling and turn that into thoughts and melody. But when it comes out, the execution on it, I think that is really the great gift. Mm. When the artist actually decides to let it go. And then we get it. The gift. Yeah."

— Interviewer • 03:14:11

"This room has seen me through so many seasons. Yeah, because you can see them."

— Dua Lipa • 03:24:10

"I went through the heat wave in London. There was snow and rain and, you know, I was ecstatic and so happy and I was sad and miserable and some days I had writer's block and some days I felt like I wasn't getting to the crux of the, you know, the real emotion that I was trying to convey."

— Dua Lipa • 03:26:57

"I don't feel like you take any of this for granted. And there was a quote, I think, from your dad that said you have to work really hard to achieve a little bit of luck, to get a little bit of luck."

— Interviewer • 03:28:31

"Seeing my parents' work ethic, seeing them adapt to so many different things where that was, I mean, not that I saw them firsthand, but when they left Kosovo because of the war that was happening in Yugoslavia to London, they just grafted and they hustled and worked really hard. And then, you know, I was, I was born in 95 and I, um, I just grew up watching them adapt to every kind of situation. And that was, I guess now I say it's inspiring to me, but it was all I knew. It was just what I saw them do. And so I feel like that for sure rubbed off on me, there was no kind of, um, this isn't going to work out option. It was like, things just had to happen. Things had to, um, there was no kind of plan B, you know?"

— Dua Lipa • 03:33:38

"You're not done. There's so much more. There's more coming, but it's a new chapter."

— Dua Lipa • 03:11:30

"And I think that interest and that curiosity has made me want to do it on a, on a bigger, bigger scale."

— Dua Lipa • 04:23:00

"I love your podcast and I love how you frame your questions. They're so direct. It's awesome. And I, and I think you get a lot out of people because of it."

— Interviewer • 04:23:29

"Thank you. It's more than an exchange. It's a dance. It's a dance. It's been eye opening for me. Also what I've realized is when I do, um, long form interviews, I can really dive in deeper and I really enjoy that."

— Dua Lipa • 04:23:55

"So who are you most nervous before you spoke to? Tim Cook."

— Interviewer • 04:31:56

"Speaking to Brian Stevenson, the civil rights lawyer who helps get people off death row, that was an unbelievably moving conversation. I think one where I've left feeling so grateful, one for him, but also seeing like the kind of people we have in the world that are so selfless, so giving, so dedicated to other people."

— Dua Lipa • 04:39:21

"The internet doesn't wait around to find out. And that's the thing that's most unsettling for me is that when opinion gets formed there, it's like, well, no one's gonna let history figure this out over time or give it the context in the moment that it deserves to create proper discourse to actually identify the nuances of what's going on here and figure it out."

— Interviewer • 04:44:27

"It's interesting when you're a musician or especially a female pop star, people go like, just shut up and just sing your songs. You know, they don't want you to have an opinion or have something to say."

— Dua Lipa • 04:58:17

"The very nature of that statement from anyone's point of view and direction of the artist is conditional. It's like, we want you to be available under conditions. Be what I want you to be and not who you are."

— Interviewer • 05:01:40

"I hope that this is for the greater good of more than just one person, you know? And it's a fine line. I never want to alienate anyone. I never want to make anyone feel bad."

— Dua Lipa • 05:04:00

"Because every time someone has doubted me, I've proved them wrong. And for me, I'm like, this is fueling me. This is like pushing me to be better, to work hard. And I get a real kick out of proving people wrong."

— Dua Lipa • 05:19:59

"I guess in, in some ways I started in this industry fairly young. I was learning the ropes as I was going into it. Um, I knew what I wanted out of my job. A lot of it revolved around performing."

— Dua Lipa • 05:27:05

"And so acquiring my publishing was, was a big step and something that I've, I've been wanting for, for a long time. And also I just, I just wanted to be separated from, I guess, another entity. I wanted to be everything under one roof."

— Dua Lipa • 05:38:49

"It was fun. It was, it was, it was purely for fun. It was another way of me expressing myself. It was something that I loved and I think it just kind of came back to that. Like music is my life. It's, it's what I do. It's the way that I have this creative outlet in a big way, but it's not the only thing that defines me."

— Dua Lipa • 04:21:00

"I also believe in, you know, uh, manifestation and yeah, big time. And I, and I also, you know, when I'm in the studio writing, I, I think about these songs being sung over a long period of time. I think about people singing them. I think of it like a mantra. And I'm like, if I'm going to say this over and over again, it better be something good."

— Dua Lipa • 05:56:25

"When I was writing my first album and I know this is going to sound mad, but. When I was writing my first album, I was kind of having thoughts about my third album. Jumping one, but I, I thought that by the third album, I would maybe be deserving of one working with Tame Impala."

— Dua Lipa • 06:03:01

"And another thing that I'd written down for album three was headlining Glastonbury."

— Dua Lipa • 06:07:18

"I feel like I'm going to get teary talking about it. Well, let's go there. Cause you know, it's a, it's a, it's the right side of emotion. It's a beautiful thing to be emotional about."

— Interviewer • 06:08:04

"I'm headlining Glastonbury on the Friday night. It's my Zane."

— Dua Lipa • 06:19:22

"When I'm in the studio and I'm writing, my, the first thought that comes into my mind is, what is this going to sound like at Glastonbury? Like it's, that's, it's the pinnacle for me."

— Dua Lipa • 06:22:37

"Yeah. Yeah. Massively. And, and, and. A lot of a band, by the way. It's a pretty good band. A lot of a band."

— Dua Lipa • 06:35:11

"I mean, End of an Era is one of the great pop album openers for me. Thank you. I've heard a long time."

— Interviewer • 06:43:05

"I also thought to start it with a song titled End of an Era. Makes total sense. Um, it's good."

— Dua Lipa • 06:45:02

"I'm headlining Glastonbury on the Friday night. It's my Zane."

— Dua Lipa • 06:19:22

"The music industry is also a business. And how, I guess just growing in it, understanding it differently, reading the small print. As an artist, you just want to stay in the creative lane. You want to just be like, I just want to make my music. That's all I care about."

— Dua Lipa • 05:30:19

"And I have to start paying attention to that. But I think again, another part of growing up is just, uh, relying on yourself more wholeheartedly. And being like, I want to be in control of my career. I want to know everything that's happening."

— Dua Lipa • 05:32:10

"It's like, who gets to tell those stories? I don't want to tell them all from a Western lens. I want it to be global. I want it to be from all over the world. So it's like, you know, crafted in a way that everyone's heard and things are seen, you know, from from everyone's perspective. And I think that is that's really that's really important is is that fine line."

— Dua Lipa • 05:11:35

"The very nature of that statement from anyone's point of view and direction of the artist is conditional. It's like, we want you to be available under conditions. Be what I want you to be and not who you are."

— Interviewer • 05:01:40

"I think one thing that we all have to remember is each of us have our own identity. Each of us have our own thought process. Each of us are also figuring it all out. No one has the answers."

— Dua Lipa • 05:15:54

"I try and not use criticism as like this like revenge thing. So I think, you know, whenever I see or feel or read anything that goes against what I know is coming or what I've been doing or how hard I've been working or whatever it is, I just kind of take a step back and I just go, okay, none, all of this is background noise and I should just stick on my path."

— Dua Lipa • 05:18:29