People are used to music that justifies street culture but something that’s not touched on is why these kids act the way they act, live the way they live.

I feel that when you care about your music, taking risks is something you should do to keep things exciting.

The album requires a certain focus of mine that I can’t really explain – let’s just say it’s all I can really do while I’m doing it.

Human beings love poetry. They don’t even know it sometimes… whether they’re the songs of Bono, or the songs of Justin Bieber… they’re listening to poetry.

I didn’t have nothin‘ going for me… school, home… until I found something I loved, which was music, and that changed everything.

This thing that I do with caring about the message in my music, it’s not separate from my work as a commercial artist; they’re totally one and the same. I’m always going to be thinking about what my voice means.

I’ve been a huge fan of Chris Martin forever; it’d be awesome to work with him. He’s really kind, and he’s been really encouraging when we’ve met.

I never wanted to write the sort of song that said, ‚Look at how abnormal and crazy and out there I am, man!‘

I’ve dreamed about doing music since I was three or four years old.

Without music, life would be a mistake.

In 7th grade, I believe, I wrote my first rap song. It was about everything I was seeing, everything that was going on around me.

I wish I could play bass like Larry Graham or Bootsy Collins. My God, I’d give up just about everything else for that.

Most of those melodies are me trying to find out what notes fit, and then hitting ones that don’t fit in a very interesting way.

If it’s illegal to rock and roll, throw my ass in jail!

You just don’t wake up one day and decide that you need to write songs.

When I found somebody who I fell in love with, it made me feel different than I felt the rest of the day. It was electrifying. That’s what inspired the ‚Off to the Races‘ melodies. That’s one of the times when you’re feeling electrified by someone else and they make you happy to be alive.

I always say this about my music, and music in general: Music is like a time capsule. Each album reflects what I’m going through or what’s going on in my life at that moment.

You know why Foo Fighters have been a band for 20 years? Because I’ve never really told anybody what I think of them. The last thing you ever want to do is go to therapy with your band.

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.

In Puerto Rico we dance to everything.

A lot of people don’t realise I came out of the Smoky Mountains with a load of songs.

If it’s good music, it’s good music.

I can’t see myself singing the same song twice in a row. That’s terrible.

That’s why I hate to get started in these jam sessions. I’m always the last one to leave.

I’ve rarely seen video screens used well in a music concert.

There weren’t a lot of career opportunities in crazy-fast hardcore punk, so you didn’t have a lot of ambition, just the love and passion to play music with your friends.

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

I think music is something that can, and should, be used to get you into different things because eventually what goes up must come down – we’re not going to be the number one group in the world forever – so you have to have something else to fall back on.

Even though I’ve been putting out bodies of work for years, ‚Beauty Behind the Madness‘ felt like the beginning.

If you hear Anarchy in the UK today your hair stands on end. It gives you the shivers.

I wanted a name I could shape the music towards. I was going to Miami quite a lot at the time, speaking a lot of Spanish with my friends from Cuba – ‚Lana Del Rey‘ reminded us of the glamour of the seaside. It sounded gorgeous coming off the tip of the tongue.

My music is influenced by L.A. culture.

In case you’re wondering whether I lip synch, the answer is no… people think so because I sound so good.

I think if I did something in the pop world right now, it would be for Rihanna. I’d love to do something production wise for her.

My fans love me for me, my beats, my rhymes.

Sing me a new song; the world is transfigured; all the Heavens are rejoicing.

I do value the respect I get from my contemporaries, but to have Oasis cover my song, to have Puff Daddy cover a song, to have Goldie come along to my gigs – that’s where my ego is at. To have my fellow musicians like what I do, that’s very cool.

I’m the same kid who used to hop the trains with headphones and just go to downtown Manhattan, walk around and listen to music or walk through the city. The fame restricts that. It’s a small complaint in comparison to the benefits I get from it, but the restrictive part is what I don’t like – and the fact that it’s not reversible.

I need music. It’s like my heartbeat, so to speak. It keeps me going no matter what’s going on – bad games, press, whatever!

In my songs, I’m not saying something that’s never been said before. The have lyrics aren’t going to blow people away. It’s the emotion and the melody that drive it home.

My music seems to have a bigger mission than I have, which is very soothing but also very strange because people see more in me than I see, which can be terrifying.

The boys know they’re from Southeast Asia, and they have their food and their music and their friends, and they have a pride particular to them.

Philosophy is the highest music.

I think maybe people see bands and musicians as some sort of superhero unrealistic sport that happens in another dimension where it’s not real people and not real emotions. So, I grew up listening to Beatles records on my floor. That’s how I learned how to play guitar. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be a musician.

If I’d had good discipline, I might have gone into music.

At 13 years old, I realized I could start my own band. I could write my own song, I could record my own record. I could start my own label. I could release my own record. I could book my own shows. I could write and publish my own fanzine. I could silk-screen my own T-shirt. I could do this all myself.

I don’t know which will go first – rock ‚n‘ roll or Christianity.

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.

To all the musicians who are making reggaeton, let’s put some more effort into it and bring something new to the people!

My favorite record label of all time is Motown. That era of music was my favorite.

I didn’t live at school, I lived where I could and studied what I enjoyed studying. I took what I wanted from that education but was making my first record at the same time. I don’t know anyone from school. I was just leading a different life. I was really interested in writing and other things.

Songs are my diaries; they always have been. You have to put your trust in everyone because putting down those real, personal details and thoughts that make a song authentic also opens you right up. I am constantly misunderstood; a lot of people just don’t get me.

We moved into the back, made it into a little 50s sitting room and started to sell the records. We had an immediate success. For one thing, these Teddy Boys were thrilled to buy the records.

You listen to the radio and all the songs sound the same, from 8 in the morning to 12.

Metal, I love metal sounds. If I have a stick with me, I just drag it across a fence. And all fences make different sounds, just like people when they laugh.

Whenever I write a novel, music just sort of naturally slips in (much like cats do, I suppose).

All Montreal bands have around nine members, I believe.

On a good night, I get underwear, bras, and hotel-room keys thrown onstage… You start to think that you’re Tom Jones.

I always loved that old song ‚Banks of the Ohio‘ – it was always such a man’s song, so I’ve always wanted to record it.

I don’t know if I ever feel totally great about a record when I put it out. With every record that I put out, someone has literally got to come pry it from me because when I listen to my own music, I just hear flaws in it.

My music will go on forever. Maybe it’s a fool say that, but when me know facts me can say facts. My music will go on forever.