I always say, you gotta play a dive bar like you play an arena, and you play an arena like you play a dive bar.

I started playing violin in the 5th grade. They had a program in school where you could get out of class to go play instruments. So I raised my hand, left out of class, me and a bunch of my homeboys, just to get out of class for that day. They asked what instrument you wanted to play and I picked the violin.

Songwriting is my way of channeling my feelings and my thoughts. Not just mine, but the things I see, the people I care about. My head would explode if I didn’t get some of that stuff out.

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 was a strange, loud little kid who could sit at the piano and kill a Beethoven piece.

I found music to be the therapy of choice. I guess it is for a lot of people.

Music has the power to inspire the world.

While musical experts of the world focus on what choir members can do, I would like to focus on what choir members can be.

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.

In this day and age, when you can use a machine or computer to simulate or emulate what people can do together, it still can’t replace the magic of four people in a room playing.

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

I’ve always written songs the same way. You learn different tricks – you learn craft, you learn structure, all that – as you go.

The great moments of rock ‚n‘ roll were never off in some corner of the music world, in a self-constructed ghetto.

I have to practice to be good at guitar. I have to write 100 songs before you write the first good one.

If there’s not drama and negativity in my life, all my songs will be really wack and boring or something.

I’ve noticed a lot of younger artists have less fear of doing different sorts of things, whether it’s various types of music, or gallery artists moving between video and sculpture and drawing.

We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first, rock ‚n‘ roll or Christianity.

An operatic voice is like no other.

You know, when Michael Jackson does the moonwalk, he’s showing off! When Prince or Hendrix do a guitar solo, it’s confidence! I would hate to be at a show and some nervous wreck is sweating up there and doesn’t feel like he deserves to be there.

A letdown is worth a few songs. A heartbreak is worth a few albums.

Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes.

I don’t know, I feel desperate when I sing. And I look desperate – it feels like I’m singing for my life, which makes me twitch, if that makes sense.

You create a community with music, not just at concerts but by talking about it with your friends.

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

If I’m inspired to make a certain kind of song, I’m going to make that kind of song, no matter if it’s what they know me as or think I am.

I never intended for the Monster Ball to be a religious experience, it just became one.

I feel like in my music I can be a rebel. I can say things I wouldn’t say in real life.

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

I never listen to the radio unless I rent a car.

Music helps me tell my story. That’s where I can really be heard. But there’s so much focus on the things that aren’t music.

I wish I could make music about politics. I feel like it’s such an art and a talent that I admire tremendously, but when I step into the studio, I step out of the real world, and it’s therapeutic.

This land is your land and this land is my land, sure, but the world is run by those that never listen to music anyway.

I love artists like Prince, who hold on to that element of mystery.

You listen to Charlie Parker or John Coltrane before they found their voice, they sounded different. And when you listen to them after they found their voice on their instruments, they sound more confident and in control. Artists have that, too.

I write my own songs. I made my own videos. I pick my producers. Nothing goes out without my permission. It’s all authentic.

I made an album I’m very proud of, and that’s about it.

My father moved to Hawaii from Brooklyn and my mother came there as a child from the Philippines. They met at a show where my dad was playing percussion. My mom was a hula dancer.

Some people focus more on sonics. Some people focus more on story. I focus on both sonics and story.

I never listen to ‚Nevermind.‘ I haven’t listened to it since we put it out. That says something.

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

When I won the first Grammy, there was no other feeling like that feeling. It just made me feel like I came so far, like that was just a dream a few years before that, and then it was happening right then.

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

I’ve never wanted to use my age as a gimmick, as something that would get me ahead of other people. I’ve wanted the music to do that.

I ain’t here to argue about his facial features. Or here to convert atheists into believers. I’m just trying to say the way school need teachers the way Kathie Lee needed Regis that’s the way yall need Jesus.

Music can change the world because it can change people.

The first rap CD that I had, it was so different for me. The energy, the wordplay, all that caught my attention, and I liked it.

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

Music is in my DNA!

I never went to rock concerts when I was a kid. I didn’t see any rock & roll bands. I had posters on my wall. I had Beatles records.

My mother is a singer, my sisters all sing, my uncles are incredible singers and guitar players, so it’s just kind of been like my habitat.

Phish and Dave Matthews really know their audiences and really treat them well.

I’ve written all my songs on every single one of my records, and that’s what’s been fun about looking back.

I can understand how some people might resent me for having the audacity to continue playing music, but it’d take a lot more than that to stop me from doing it. I started Foo Fighters because I didn’t want to retreat.

If it weren’t for the Beatles, I would not be a musician.

Bob Dylan is like an alien on this earth, and I love him! I cried when I saw him play live because I was so close to him.

I’m not into albums that are meant to sound perfect.

I just wanted to be a songwriter. I did really not like the sound of my own voice.

I often get ideas for songs on the tour bus at odd times. Like at 6am when no one is around, I’d just write.

I’m an iPod person.

Music belongs to the people. To no one else. To no one else.

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.