Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps

"There’s something about arriving in new cities, wandering empty streets with no destination. I will never lose the love for the arriving, but I'm born to leave."

Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps

"I thought that if I owned nothing, had nothing, was nothing, I would have nothing left to lose, and I wouldn't be scared anymore. Because my whole life I’ve been so damn scared. Scared to live because I was scared to die. But at the same I was so scared of living, so I wanted to die. Or maybe so scared of dying that I refused to live. You don't have to be afraid to fall, when you're already on the ground. You don't have to be scared to lose someone, when there's no one around to lose."

Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps

"You need to belong to yourself, and let others belong to themselves too. You need to be free and detached from things and your surroundings. You need to build your home in your own simple existence, not in friends, lovers, your career or material belongings, because these are things you will lose one day."

Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps

"I know there are days when even one single positive thought feels like too much effort, but you must develop an unconditional love for life. You must never lose your childish curiosity for the possibilities in every single day. Who you can be, what you can see, what you can feel and where it can lead you. Be in love with your life, everything about it. The sadness and the joys, the struggles and the lessons, your flaws and strengths, what you lose and what you gain."

Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps

"You smoked another cigarette and we shared another coffee and it was just another morning that made me realise that this is all it takes to be happy."

Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps

"I never have time to write anymore. And when I do I only write about how I never have time. It's work and it's money and I've written more lists than songs lately. I stay up all night to do all these things I need to do, be all these things I want to be, playing with shadows in the darkness that shouldn't be able to exist. Empty bottles and cigarettes while watching the sunrise, why do I complain? I have it all, everything I ever asked for."

Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps

"There are very few friends that will lie down with you on empty streets in the middle of the night, without a word. No questions, no asking why, just quietly lay there with you, observing the stars, until you're ready to get back up on your feet again and walk the last bit home, softly holding your hand as a quiet way of saying “I'm here”.It was a beautiful night."

Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps

"I was stressed and scared and I had to hurry to be someone, become something, do something. I was running and talking and cursed myself when I wasted my time on things that wouldn’t get me anywhere. It was work and it was money and I was never where I was, always somewhere else in my head far, far away."

Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps

"And this is what being an artist means, being a poet? To sacrifice yourself for your art, sacrifice your heart for your art, because it’s only through something broken that something beautiful can grow."

Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps

"I have lost and loved and won and cried myself to the person I am today."

Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps

"I could write about how I feel when I sing, write and create something from heartbreak, sorrow, sadness or just simply nothingness. How nothingness can become the most beautiful, unexplainable feeling that makes you forget about gravity for an hour."

Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps

"My wish has always been to write my own story, to create a life that’s worth writing about. But is a story worth anything at all if I have no one to tell it to?"

Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps

"All I wanted was my art and the chance to be the creator of my own world, my own reality."

Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps

"I believe in knowing who you are but without limiting yourself to your own expectation of who you are."

Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps

"Horizons, cheap whisky straight from the bottleand your hands in mine."

Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps

"I will never lose the love for the arriving, but I'm born to leave."

Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps

"I want my life to be the greatest story. My very existence will be the greatest poem.Watch me burn.Love always, Charlotte"

Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps

"5.57am and I’m finishing the last poem to the taste of the last cigarette. Smoke in my lungs, poetry on the paper. Inhale, exhale, it doesn’t get much easier."

Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps

"I just wish you could see my demons for what they are, and lay here beside me on the floor. No words. Just your presence."

Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps

"This is my story. I don't know where I'm going, but I know I'm going somewhere beautiful, and I know I'm on my way... It's been a beautiful adventure. It always will be."

Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps

"All I wanted was to live a life where I could be me, and be okay with that. I had no need for material possessions, money or even close friends with me on my journey. I never understood people very well anyway, and they never seemed to understand me very well either. All I wanted was my art and the chance to be the creator of my own world, my own reality. I wanted the open road and new beginnings every day."

Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps

"This morning I woke up before the alarm clock went off and the sky outside was a big red ocean. You're beautiful when you're sleeping so I spent an hour observing the way you breathe. Inhale, exhale, without a thought of tomorrow. The window was open and the air was so crisp and I couldn't imagine how to ever ask for more than this."

Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps

"I feel ugly” I said and you looked at me as if I spoke a different language. There are things you will never understand and if there were words to describe the rapture that takes place in my head from time to time I would put my hand in front of your eyes to protect you from all the ugliness in the world. I kept my eyes on the streetlights outside the window and you kissed every inch of my body as if you could kiss the pain away."

Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps

"I want to burn with excitement or anger and bleed, bleed out my words. I want to get all fucked up and write raw and ugly about all these things I see and am and could be."

Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps

"So I forced myself to step out of my comfort zone and go out and connect with people. I realised that no one knew me here. I could become whoever I wanted to be for these people, and that became my courage."

Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps