Taylor Swift has revealed one of the ways she deals with life when things start to get “unmanageably big.”

The 14-time Grammy winner was interviewed for a retrospective, career-spanning conversation for The Icon Sessions, presented by the Recording Academy’s Songwriters & Composers Wing.

During the interview, Swift discussed not allowing the public’s perception of her to slow down her creativity.

“I go through several processes and coping mechanisms that I’ve gone through over the years,” she said. “And one of them is saying, ‘You chose this. You chose this every day. You could have opted out of this any day before it got unmanageably big.’ And I decided not to because I love it that much.”

For Swift, “that’s just where it begins and where it ends.”

“Everything that comes with this ultimately is worth it as long as I get to still make music,” she said.

While music is something Swift said is about “emotional truths” that will either resonate with people or not, she has found success in not listening to people who said, growing up, that she did not have a “valid perspective” to appeal to a “certain genre.”

“I realized that I’m making music because I’m playing for the fans,” she said. “I’m putting this out for people who care about it and who look to music as a way to cope with their life in the way that I did.”

“I think that if you can actually go through all those checkpoints and realize that putting out music you’ve made that you love so much is not the path to universal validation, if you’re still doing it, then you love it for the right reasons,” said Swift.

Swift’s career saw new heights in June when she was inducted into the 2026 Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

The megastar was inducted into the 2026 class alongside Walter Afanasieff, Terry Britten and Graham Lyle, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons of KISS, Kenny Loggins, Alanis Morissette and Christopher “Tricky” Stewart.

During her 20-minute speech, Swift reflected on how songwriting was naturally a form of self-reflection for her.

Taylor Swift attends the Songwriters Hall of Fame 55th Annual Induction and Awards Gala at Marriott Marquis Hotel on June 11, 2026.Jamie McCarthy/Getty
“No one taught me how to do it,” said Swift. “I had to be taught how to entertain the crowd and learn choreography, and be less annoying, and navigate the industry, and fiercely protect my own sanity. I had to learn all of that over time through difficult lessons, and massive amounts of trial and error, and chaos, and calamity.”