A Khaled record is always the best.

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 don’t really believe in the type of pressure that people are wanting to put on the type of music that I make.

Hawaiian music is beautiful and simple.

When I listen to a song, I don’t say, ‚Oh my gosh, that vocal line she sang was the best thing I ever heard.‘ I’m thinking, ‚That lyric just moves me. That lyric just said what I feel better than I could say it myself.‘

When I joined Nirvana, I was the fifth or sixth drummer – I don’t know if they’d ever had a drummer they were totally happy with. And they were strangers. There was never much of a deeper connection outside of the music.

One of my big fears is people saying my songs are all starting to sound the same.

My experience with songwriting is usually so confessional, it’s so drawn from my own life and my own stories.

I made an album I’m very proud of, and that’s about 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 always use the same guitar; I got this guitar years and years ago for nine pounds. It’s still got the same strings on it.

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

Robert Fripp and I will be recording another LP very soon. It should be even more monotonous than the first one!

When you listen to Ray Charles, there’s never any doubt whose voice that is.

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

I definitely think, generally, rap is misogynistic.

The music we do is for people to enjoy, dance and sing to it. Dreamers – keep on dreaming and keep working hard to achieve your goals. There are many difficulties, but what matters is to stay focused and have perseverance.

I love making music. That’s what I love to do. So I don’t feel like there’s any need to take a break unless I want to.

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.

Everyone my age probably grew up listening to the ‚perreos‘ of Plan B.

I’ve made sure that in any situation and with any record label, I’m allowed to write my own music.

Having listened to great songwriters like James Taylor and Carole King, I felt there was nothing new that was coming out that really represented me and the way I felt. So I started writing my own stuff.

I can play a lot of different instruments adequately but nothing really well.

I’m pretty sure in my older years, I’ll be doing old-time flavored folk-mountain music.

I love Wiz Khalifa.

I want to be a recording artist for my whole entire life. But Broadway is something I would come back to at any given moment. I love, love, love doing theater.

I’ve always loved Def Leppard, ever since I was little.

I want to thank The Beatles for almost single-handedly getting me out of writer’s block.

I make good music for long journeys.

I could sing you a thousand and one doo-wop songs. I love the simplicity in that music. It’s not super-poetic, it’s just from the heart.

I’m putting out this free music, constantly putting it out.

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

I say, ‚Yeah, Taylor Swift.‘ I think she is a smart, beautiful girl. I think she’s making all the right moves. She’s got a good head on her shoulders. She’s surrounded with wonderful people. Her songs are great. She keeps herself anchored. She knows who she is, and she’s living and standing by that.

I owe everything to Nirvana. But I can’t let that overshadow the future. For the first few years, I didn’t even want to talk about Nirvana. Partly because it was just painful to talk about losing Kurt but also because I wanted the Foo Fighters to mean something.

I wish all teenagers can filter through songs instead of turning to drugs and alcohol.

I just love working with Eminem. He’s just one of my favorite rappers, and his lyrics – he’s a true poet, and I enjoy that about him.

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.

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

Fill the earth with your songs of gratitude.

Life is a song to me.

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

It didn’t even occur to me that I’m the last person in the world who should play salsa or Brazilian music.

I was a super-duper Tupac fan, and I realized later, when I became a huge Nas fan and a huge Eminem fan, I was drawn to the storytellers. They all told stories in different ways, but they were all like the best storytellers.

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.

Whatever I’m feeling, whatever I’m going through, whatever mood I’m in… If I’m feeling like dancing or clubbing, then it will be reflected in the music. If I’m feeling dark and vulnerable, then it will reflect in the music, too.

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.

I think I don’t take myself too seriously. You know as far as, it’s a fun life. I take my music serious, but I like to have fun.

I grew up in a musical family; the majority of my growing up was done in Hawaii. It’s what we do. You sing, you dance, you play ukulele and you drink.

Music is the wine which inspires one to new generative processes, and I am Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for mankind and makes them spiritually drunken.

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

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

I wanted to be famous for my music and my talent, and I always wished I could cut it out when I left the stage.

I’m a painter in sound.

Music is the melody whose text is the world.

I love being a part of the country-music community.

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

When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music. Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?

I went through all the musicians in my life who I admire as bright, intelligent, virtuosic players.

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.

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

I enjoy singing my songs in front of people. I enjoy being involved in making the artwork for albums and stupid stuff like that.