Ariana Grande's Apple Music Interview: Living With Anxiety, Meeting Jim Carrey, Taking Time Away From Music to Heal & When She'll Tour Again

On her mom, and the full circle moment of Wicked:

“Even from such a young age, she would fly me in from Boca to audition for Broadway shows. I believed in it, so she supported me and she never pushed me. She always was just kind of very supportive…it’s nice. It’s strange, but also not. It feels so full circle. It feels like home. It feels like pieces of the puzzle that have always been there finding their way back again. Just a nice balance of everything. It’s beautiful. I hope you love it. I’m excited for you to see it.”

On freedom through art:

“I think there’s such a freedom within art in general because you really can pull from anywhere. You can pull from your truth, you can pull from a concept, you can pull from a film, from a story you’re telling. From a story about a relationship that a friend told you. Art is really, it can come from anywhere. Finding a home in eternal sunshine was a lovely costume to wear, I think, for this project.”

On “ordinary things” being inspired by a voice note of her Nonna:

“Honestly, I didn’t realize it until I found the voice note. I knew ‘ordinary things’ was the end of the album. I was like, ‘This is the last song, but I wonder how I can put that button on it and have it land emotionally the way that I feel it can, and how can I answer the question?’ I always record my Nonna when I’m with her because you never know what she’s going to say, and she’s the most hilarious person in the world. I had this 30-minute voice note of her and her friend, Shirley, talking. It was just right smack in the middle of it, and I said, ‘Oh my God, that’s the answer.’”

On her time away from music:

“I had a very interesting relationship to music before I left for Wicked. I think that the time away was really healing. It’s so interesting because I came back and I’ve loved every minute of making this album, the videos, rehearsing, putting the roll-out together, doing the photo shoots, every single part of it. More than ever before in my life, I’ve been able to be so much more present and enjoy it and savor it this time in a way that I don’t think I was able to before.