“PEOPLE tend to think I’m insane,” Chan Marshall said, “and I’m really tired of it.”


Ms. Marshall, the singer-songwriter who performs as Cat Power, has had well-documented problems with alcohol, drugs and depression. Just before her critically acclaimed album “The Greatest” came out in 2006, she was admitted to a hospital for psychiatric treatment. Since then Ms. Marshall, 40, has been sober and stable, with renewed confidence. “Sun,” her first original album in six years, which she produced, is out Sept. 4 from Matador. A video she directed, for the single “Cherokee,” is forthcoming, and she is active on Twitter and Instagram, where she sometimes has “Instagram-offs” with friends.


But all is not smooth. In March her four-year relationship with the actor Giovanni Ribisi ended. (He married the model Agyness Deyn three months later.) “It’s really sad,” Ms. Marshall said, “but there’s nothing that I can do about it now.”


In her stream-of-consciousness conversational style, she was candid about the breakup, her ups and downs and the trials that led her to record “Sun” on her own in Malibu, Calif. She first asked a friend to listen to her material; he found it depressing and dated.


“I felt like I had thousands of nails on my chest,” she said. “I just packed up, and I just didn’t do anything except enjoy my domestic relationship. I thought, ‘I’m going to get pregnant, and my music history is done.’ ” But eventually “I heard that silent knocking — think, play, write,” she said. “And then I went back to the studio, and that’s when ‘Sun’ started coming.”


Now living in Miami with her French bulldogs, Mona and Abuelo, she spoke with Melena Ryzik about her favorite artists, her respect for transgressive comedy — “Lenny Bruce was a hero” — and her interest in meeting Ryan Gosling. (Purely professionally of course.) Here are excerpts from the conversation.


Q. Kanye West’s “New God Flow,” a track with Pusha T, and Jay-Z’s “My First Song,” which are both about breaking through struggle, made your list of favorites.


A. “New God Flow” is a new song, so that’s extra meaningful to me. Kanye, I think that three-quarters of the U.S. would probably label him difficult, but I think when Katrina happened [and Mr. West spoke out about President George W. Bush], I found him to be quite brave. His fearlessness, candidness, I think it’s inspiring for American people right now. “New God Flow” I think is inspiring to me because of his sort of mouthiness. And that Jay-Z song, I love that song because I love him. I find him to be honorable in storytelling. The almost loving sort of camaraderie he has, the compassionate admiration he has — there’s something very graceful and dignified about his writing. Storytelling music has always been really inspiring to me. Blues and country and even old standards and folk, even tribal music, Native American chanting.


Q. You also picked “Pa Pa Power,” by Dead Man’s Bones, which is Ryan Gosling’s band with Zach Shields.


A. No. 1, I’m going to cover that song, and No. 2, I saw Ryan Gosling in that movie, “Lars and the Real Girl.” Amazing actor, right? You can see right through him, you can see his soul. I Googled “Ryan Gosling singing,” and I saw him as a little boy, and that’s what I did when I was a little girl, I could’ve been in the Mickey Mouse Club [as Mr. Gosling was]. I saw him singing as a little kid, and I understood something about him. I think he’s a new leader type, a creative type. In 20 years he’s going to have done really great things for the world.


Q. Have you ever met him?


A. Hell, no. My ex told me he came to a show of mine and said he loved my version of “Moonshiner.” He won’t return my e-mails, but I don’t care. [To Mr. Gosling] I think you’re rad and can you please play my record-release party?


Q. Tell me about your interest in Henning Mankell, a Swedish crime writer.


A. [The drummer] Jim White from the Dirty Three turned me on to him. He’s amazing and I want to do a documentary — I have all these projects with this Web site, IncredTV.com. He has a theater group in Angola. He spends like six months a year there. He’s this freakish guy who wrote crime novels, and he had this other thing that he wanted to do and he does it.


Q. That’s like you, directing the video.


A. I used to want to be a war photographer, and I used to want to be a ballerina and a comedian. I used to want to be a writer. I invalidated myself, it’s a mistake for me. I have learned through my friendships and through people that I’ve met who survived. There’s just a lot of stuff that really moves me, and I don’t know how to express it, and I just want to try to do the best I can and surround myself with good people who don’t invalidate me. Coming out of this relationship — I was in the relationship for a long time, and I really tried to learn what it’s like to be part of a unit, a healthy parental unit and a sort of wife, and I didn’t do it good enough. And that was really hard to come out of it as a failure, as a 40-year-old woman, and it still hurts. But I can’t look backwards, I have to be O.K. I finished the album, and now I have this big job I have to do.


Q. Do you think artists have a responsibility to share their struggle, to speak out?


A. I’ve never thought that before, and Patti Smith, when I met Patti a long time ago when I wasn’t doing that well, when I was very shy and couldn’t look people in the eye, and she said, “You know, it’s our responsibility as an artist,” and I don’t remember what she said. I remember I felt like, I’m fighting Satan over here, I’ve got demons. Artists have a responsibility? It’s like, I don’t even know if I’m an artist, and please don’t tell me that, Patti, because you’re cool and strong. And now I totally agree with that, because it’s the only language left where you can say what you want. Because you’re nuts. The jester always lived because he told the truth like a joke.