I really like hip-hop and rap; that’s my main influence. I really wanna be more of a hip-hop artist.

When I listen to ‚Nevermind,‘ I hate the production, but there’s something about it that almost makes me cry at times.

U2’s best work has always been when we didn’t know what we’re doing.

I hope to build a reputation as a science-fiction writer. That’s the pitch. We’ll see.

Each morning when I awake, I experience again a supreme pleasure – that of being Salvador Dali.

No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.

If I heard someone else singing like me, I would buy it in a heartbeat.

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.

I always felt like there was a certain standard of music that I had to do from the beginning, even when I didn’t have the recognition that I have now.

Of course, ‚I Will Always Love You‘ is the biggest song so far in my career. I’m famous for several, but that one has been recorded by more people and made me more money, I think, than all of them. But that song did come from a true and deep place in my heart.

Our chief justices have probably had more profound and lasting influence on their times and on the direction of the nation than most presidents.

The artist part of me always wants to be appreciated. I read every review. But I never wanted to seek validation by awards or anything controlled by politics.

On the other hand, what I like my music to do to me is awaken the ghosts inside of me. Not the demons, you understand, but the ghosts.

You can’t imagine parlor ballads drifting out of high-rise multi-towered buildings. That kind of music existed in a more timeless state of life.

I don’t know if it’s changing already with ‚Joanne,‘ but my intention is to bring people together that don’t know each other and that would maybe feel awkward, but somehow be brought together by the music. That’s what I wanted to do. Because that is pure and authentic to my family history and what I stand for.

The Heads were the only band on that scene that had a groove.

I think the personal relationships I established mattered in terms of what I was able to get done. And I did bring women’s issues to the center of our foreign policy.

Rhythm is something you either have or don’t have, but when you have it, you have it all over.

My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.

I don’t know anything about music. In my line you don’t have to.

Dropkick Murphys get me going, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana… plus, all the regular hip-hop stuff.

The darkness, the loop of negative thoughts on repeat, clamours and interferes with the music I hear in my head.

Sitting on a bedroom floor crying is something that makes you feel really alone. If someone’s singing about that feeling, you feel bonded to that person.

I wouldn’t call myself a synaesthete in the sense that Nabokov was. But I’ll talk about a sound as being cold blue or dark brown. For descriptive purposes, yes, I often see colors when I’m listening to music and think, ‚Oh, there’s not enough sort of yellowy stuff in here, or not enough white.‘

I’d like to do a completely off-the-wall collaboration. I would like one of my songs to be the hook to a rap song. That would be so much fun!

I learned how important it is to entertain people and give them a reason to come and watch you play.

I really learned to sing in church, I think, really with emotion.

It’s easy to make an album full of great songs. But I want people to go for the ride. The songs have to make sense together.

See, people are watching you. Especially your children. They’re taking in every single thing you do. They are like video cameras with legs. And they are always in the record mode. They learn more from what you do than from what you say.

You can’t always write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say, so sometimes you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream.

When I’m 40 and nobody wants to see me in a sparkly dress anymore, I’ll be like: ‚Cool, I’ll just go in the studio and write songs for kids.‘

I always hated how I looked on camera. I never put a face to my music, which actually made the music that much more mysterious.

I’d love to do a duet, always wanted to work with Madonna, but she never asked.

As an artist your first loyalty is to your art. Unless this is the case, you’re going to be a second-rate artist.

‚Tis education forms the common mind; just as the twig is bent the tree’s inclined.

But, you know, you can’t be a star at home.

I think we’re about ready for a new feeling to enter music. I think that will come from the Arabic world.

What I like about music is the songs you can remember the lines of in a single second.

If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or music, then in that respect you can call me that… I believe in what I do, and I’ll say it.

I knew the second I finished the first record – ‚House Of Balloons‘ – and had all this material leftover that a trilogy would be best.

I remember talking with Arcade Fire after their first record, when they were getting all kinds of offers from major labels, and I don’t think I gave them any advice. They survived that whole onslaught pretty well anyway without me.

I grew up on the Beatles; I love Linkin Park and Green Day. I heard hip-hop for the first time at 11 and realized what I was missing.

The will is a beast of burden. If God mounts it, it wishes and goes as God wills; if Satan mounts it, it wishes and goes as Satan wills; Nor can it choose its rider… the riders contend for its possession.

Wagner manages to convey emotion with music better than anyone, before or since.

I really like Lady GaGa and everything she is for her fans.

I don’t just listen to rap.

Lyrics are so important, but they’re really underrated.

I could imagine at a certain age, when I have no vocal cords left, that I would find a young man who could sing my parts for me. But I don’t see why I would stop.

Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.

I believe that God has put gifts and talents and ability on the inside of every one of us. When you develop that and you believe in yourself and you believe that you’re a person of influence and a person of purpose, I believe you can rise up out of any situation.

If people take anything from my music, it should be motivation to know that anything is possible as long as you keep working at it and don’t back down.

I’m just writing, writing, writing. I keep these tablets on me until I’m inspired to go back in and make the music. I never take a break from my pen, because I pride myself on that.

I kinda like the idea of having an album that’s all me.

Madonna, I think, is the greatest visual musical artist that we’ve ever had. If you look at her photo log, the photographers that she was able to work with throughout her career framed her in the proper way. It was the proper context. It was that visual that made sure that everything was gonna cut through in a certain way.

I enjoy all forms of music – pop, classical and opera.

The Sisters of Notre Dame at St. Aloysius Grade School influenced my life tremendously. This was due to the fact that they encouraged you always to make sure that God is the focus of your life, and they didn’t allow you to do anything except to the very best of your ability.

I wanted to drop three albums in a year because no one had done it. It was bold, unheard of.

Occasionally, I hanker for the time when I sold more records, but I don’t sit and drool about it. When I do look at early footage of Talking Heads, I realise I was just a wreck.

I belong to a gospel choir. They know I am an atheist but they are very tolerant.

I was warped early by Ray Bradbury and Edgar Allan Poe. I was very fond of Franz Kafka.

There’s a lot of pressure putting an album out all over the world and hoping people everywhere like it.