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Creativity Quote by Mitski

"There’s power in admitting what you want"

About this Quote

There is a quiet dare inside Mitski's line: wanting is not just a feeling, its a disclosure. In a culture that rewards detachment and punishes neediness, naming desire out loud can read like a loss of leverage. Mitski flips that logic. The power isnt in getting what you want; its in refusing the performance of not wanting anything at all.

The intent feels less like self-help than self-defense. Mitski's songs are full of narrators who try to disappear inside competence, caretaking, irony, romance, or work, only to find that suppression turns desire into something hungrier and stranger. "Admitting" is the key verb: it implies secrecy, shame, a private ledger of needs youve been trained to minimize. Saying it plainly cuts through the elaborate strategies people use to stay "reasonable". It is a reclaiming of agency from the voice that tells you youre too much.

The subtext is also about negotiation. When you articulate a want, you risk rejection, but you also stop letting other people write your script. You become legible. That legibility can be dangerous, especially for women and outsiders, who are often socialized to make their wants palatable or to translate them into acceptable forms. Mitski treats honesty as a form of stakes-raising: it clarifies the terms of intimacy, ambition, and heartbreak.

Contextually, the line lands in an era of curated nonchalance, where longing gets outsourced to memes and "no expectations" dating. Mitski offers the radical alternative: want something, admit it, and let that truth make the next move possible.

Quote Details

TopicConfidence
SourceMitski interview with The Atlantic (February 2022) on desire and performance
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Mitski. (2026, February 1). There’s power in admitting what you want. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/theres-power-in-admitting-what-you-want-184728/

Chicago Style
Mitski. "There’s power in admitting what you want." FixQuotes. February 1, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/theres-power-in-admitting-what-you-want-184728/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"There’s power in admitting what you want." FixQuotes, 1 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/theres-power-in-admitting-what-you-want-184728/. Accessed 11 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Mitski Add to List
Mitski on Desire: The Power of Admitting What You Want
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About the Author

Mitski

Mitski (born September 27, 1990) is a Musician from USA.

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