Music is like film to me.

Without freedom, no art; art lives only on the restraints it imposes on itself, and dies of all others.

No person who is not a great sculptor or painter can be an architect. If he is not a sculptor or painter, he can only be a builder.

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

Instruments sound interesting, not because of their sound, but because of the relationship a player has with them. Instrumentalists build a rapport with their instruments, which is what you like and respond to.

Jesus is ideal and wonderful, but you Christians – you are not like him.

Mobile is a lot closer to TV than it is to desktop.

There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face.

Mine is better than ours.

The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.

No, I can’t do rap music!

The bad gains respect through imitation, the good loses it especially in art.

Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation.

I believe in singing to such an extent that, if I were asked to redesign the British educational system, I would start by insisting that group singing becomes a central part of the daily routine. I believe it builds character and, more than anything else, encourages a taste for cooperation with others.

In those days, the early 1980s, TV and film were interchangeable.

I don’t know how the rap game is, because I’m a fan of reality, and the rap game’s entertainment.

I always wanted to operate at the highest altitude, just in terms of hip-hop and the music.

There is only a finger’s difference between a wise man and a fool.

Gospel music is never pessimistic, it’s never ‚oh my god, its all going down the tubes‘, like the blues often is.

Every picture has its own demands, and every picture stimulates something within you to tell it a certain way. I don’t know what that is; I don’t think too much about that.

I get a thrill meeting kids who are into alternative music.

I tried to give the world a bit of creativity, lyrics. And for me, I will always represent music from Puerto Rico, reggaeton, Latin music.

I was ready to quit music. It felt to me like music equalled death.

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.

Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. They’re my biggest heroes. I love everything about Leonard Cohen: his lyrics and his voice. He seems like a really clever man, and Bob Dylan does as well. He’s just really cool.

Through Kurt I saw the beauty of minimalism and the importance of music that’s stripped down.

He does it with better grace, but I do it more natural.

A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament.

I create stars.

I’m not interested in possible complexities. I regard song structure as a graph paper.

A chorus is not easy.

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

Ninety percent of all music is always crap, and when too many people decide they’re going to have guitar bands, then ninety percent of them are going to be crap. It’s just a given law.

All art is dependent on technology because it’s a human endeavour, so even when you’re using charcoal on a wall or designed the proscenium arch, that’s technology.

When I heard Little Richard, I mean, it just set my world on fire.

I know a lot of people who wouldn’t be comfortable with everything that comes with being in a band as big as Nirvana. The thing that I don’t understand is not appreciating that simple gift of being able to play music.

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

People assume that the meaning of a song is vested in the lyrics. To me, that has never been the case. There are very few songs that I can think of where I remember the words.

Politics is the art of controlling your environment.

I’ve been asking myself: ‚Why put together these things – CDs, albums?‘ The answer I came up with is, well, sometimes it’s artistically viable. It’s not just a random collection of songs. Sometimes the songs have a common thread, even if it’s not obvious or even conscious on the artists‘ part.

Hawaii is paradise. It sounds cheesy to say it, but there’s music in the air there.

Who is richer? The man who is seen, but cannot see? Or the man who is not being seen, but can see?

I don’t know how to function without music. When I’m not making it, I’m listening to it. It gives me courage and takes care of my mind.

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

I wanted to have the adoration of John Lennon but have the anonymity of Ringo Starr. I didn’t want to be a frontman. I just wanted to be back there and still be a rock and roll star at the same time.

Man becomes his most creative during war.

It’s important to love in hip hop.

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

In a certain way, it’s the sound of the words, the inflection and the way the song is sung and the way it fits the melody and the way the syllables are on the tongue that has as much of the meaning as the actual, literal words.

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 believe that economics is based on scarcity of markets. And it’s possible to monetize your art without compromising the integrity of it for commerce.

Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist.

The only frustrating thing about jail is that I can’t make music.

The true artist is not proud: he unfortunately sees that art has no limits; he feels darkly how far he is from the goal, and though he may be admired by others, he is sad not to have reached that point to which his better genius only appears as a distant, guiding sun.

I would drive to gigs in my tiny little Fiat. I would shoot up and down the M1 to play at various places.

I was always interested in choreography – in making people think and feel something.

I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.

One of my most popular songs, ‚Satellites,‘ I paid $300 for that beat on SoundClick.

I’ve never thought about songwriting as a weapon. I’ve only thought about it as a way to help me get through love and loss and sadness and loneliness and growing up.

Every bad situation is a blues song waiting to happen.

Music will never go away, and I will never stop making music; it’s just what capacity or what arena you decide to do it.