A chorus is not easy.

Searching for music is like searching for God. They’re very similar. There’s an effort to reclaim the unmentionable, the unsayable, the unseeable, the unspeakable, all those things, comes into being a composer and to writing music and to searching for notes and pieces of musical information that don’t exist.

Sometimes I wish I had taken the Bob Dylan route and sang songs where my voice would not go out on me every night, so I could have a career if I wanted.

I don’t know what acting is, but I enjoy it.

I play the harmonica. The only way I can play is if I get my car going really fast, and stick it out the window.

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

One of the reasons I connect to the Super Bowl is that I approach my shows like an athlete.

I’m super serious about music. That’s, like, the only thing I’m serious about.

If you look at me in ‚Ride Along,‘ even though I’m playing two different characters, my demeanor and my tone were not aggressive.

We were all on this ship in the sixties, our generation, a ship going to discover the New World. And the Beatles were in the crow’s nest of that ship.

My audience went, ‚Wait, why is she singing jazz? What’s going on?‘ And then they went, ‚Oh, because she can. Because she loves it.‘ And jazz, a music invented by the African-American community, is the greatest art form, I believe, to have ever come out of this country.

I don’t like headphones very much, and I rarely listen to music on headphones.

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.

Philosophy is the highest music.

I have a very eclectic iPod. So I’ve got my cardio people – so it’s anything from Beyonce to some Jay-Z to Janelle Monae, her song ‚Tightrope,‘ that’s a good cardio song. And then I’ve got Sting. I’ve got Mary J. Blige. I’ve got The Beatles. I’ve got Michael Jackson. I try to pick the songs that I personally love.

Actors know what actors are insecure about – and they’re all insecure.

I think what made it difficult for people to get, and still makes it difficult for people to get, is the theatrical nature of the work and the fact that, my music doesn’t exist without the performance-art element.

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.

Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world.

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

I rate Morrissey as one of the best lyricists in Britain. For me, he’s up there with Bryan Ferry.

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. That’s the only way I can find an explanation for why 55,000 people would want to come see me sing.

I love Wiz Khalifa.

If you pour your life into songs, you want them to be heard. It’s a desire to communicate. A deep desire to communicate inspires songwriting.

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

When I did ‚Bird,‘ it was a surprise to some people, first because I wasn’t in it and second because most of the films I’d been doing were cop movies or westerns or adventure films, so to be doing one about Charlie Parker, who was a great influence on American music, was a great thrill for me.

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.

Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.

Once you’ve changed who you are or who you’ve portrayed in your music, the fans, they’ll catch it… Once I feel like the world knows me for anything else but my music, then I feel like I failed.

I like to combine the dramatic emotional warmth of strings with the grooves and body business of drums and bass.

I just try to write songs that people are going to have a dialogue about.

All I have to say is basically if performing, singing, acting, and dancing is what you want to do, then you just have to do it – no matter where it is.

It confuses me and disappoints me when somebody says, ‚What does he do? What does he do?‘ My records are some of the biggest anthems ever. What do you think, they magically just appear? Obama walked out to my record.

I pay attention to lyrics and I know what rap fans care about. I try to write for the average listener and I’m conscious of the mainstream without selling out.

Here’s what I think about music and journalism: The most important thing is to just press play.

You can have the platinum album. But, you know, when you still feel like you haven’t quite found your place in the world, it kind of gives a crazy offset.

I wanted to be in a punk band before I had even heard any punk music.

I try to sprinkle a little gems and jewels in the music that people could use in their own life.

Because you have things like ‚American Idol‘ and you’ve got radio stations that play music made entirely by computers, it’s easy to forget there are bands with actual people playing actual instruments that rock.

I love to play music. So why endanger that with something like drugs?

When I listen to music these days, and I hear Pro Tools and drums that sound like a machine – it kinda sucks the life out of music.

I used to love Kurt Cobain, when he was telling people we’re a pop band. People would laugh, they thought of it as good old ironic Kurt. But he wasn’t being ironic.

Every bad situation is a blues song waiting to happen.

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

Bad performances can happen and are not that serious – even with new players. You can’t, say, sell him, get a new one.

The sound and music are 50% of the entertainment in a movie.

We based the look on rock ‚n roll right from the beginning.

The jazz I love is sweet and pure with raw elements, which is exactly what the good hip-hop is doing now.

If I wasn’t Bob Dylan, I’d probably think that Bob Dylan has a lot of answers myself.

When I was born, that was the music my mother was listening to. Michael Jackson is a third parent to me.

For me, the way I stay consistent is through stand-up comedy.

Why, except as a means of livelihood, a man should desire to act on the stage when he has the whole world to act in, is not clear to me.

My grandmother took me to church on Sunday all day long, every Sunday into the night. Then Monday evening was the missionary meeting. Tuesday evening was usher board meeting. Wednesday evening was prayer meeting. Thursday evening was visit the sick. Friday evening was choir practice. I mean, and at all those gatherings, we sang.

Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance.

I believe in singing.

Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.

I think I can keep a rhythm to a beat, but there are quite a few people who would argue with me.

Many of my fans often tell me that they listen to my songs to get through things. And therefore, obviously, I hope that they can picture being in a place where things are better… I hope my songs can bring people to a calm place.

I think that, whatever happens, I’m just happy I’ve written those songs and I’ve made an album. That’s really big for me, and I’m proud of that.

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.

When ‚Paul’s Boutique‘ came out, I was one of the fans that didn’t get it.