All Montreal bands have around nine members, I believe.

I like the idea of a kind of eternal music, but I didn’t want it to be eternally repetitive, either. I wanted it to be eternally changing. So I developed two ideas in that way. ‚Discreet Music‘ was like that, and ‚Music for Airports.‘ What you hear on the recordings is a little part of one of those processes working itself out.

Music from my fourth year began to be the first of my youthful occupations. Thus early acquainted with the gracious muse who tuned my soul to pure harmonies, I became fond of her, and, as it often seemed to me, she of me.

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.

Some people are making music just for numbers and views.

I still wanna rap better than everybody else, and I wanna say important things.

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.

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.

I really appreciate the moments that I was able to win rap album of the year or whatever.

When it comes down to it, glam rock was all very amusing. At the time, it was funny, then a few years later it became sort of serious-looking and a bit foreboding.

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.

I think that by staying true to myself and making music from my heart, the blessings come.

I’ve gotten used to being Frank Ocean.

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!

I find that when I get on stage now, I don’t want to perform a lot of my songs because they don’t feel like me. So I want to make songs that are timeless.

All of my music is honest.

I don’t know if it’s changing already with ‚Joanne,‘ but my intention is to bring people together that don’t know each other and that would maybe feel awkward, but somehow be brought together by the music. That’s what I wanted to do. Because that is pure and authentic to my family history and what I stand for.

What I’m hoping is that every album I’m going to do will give my audience something different, and that they’ll grow as I do.

I don’t just listen to rap.

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

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

Now, we are selling over 5 million songs a day now. Isn’t that unbelievable? That’s 58 songs every second of every minute of every hour of every day.

The basis of our partnership strategy and our partnership approach: We build the social technology. They provide the music.

‚In Utero‘ was the first time I’d made an album that reached into the dark side. I remember the conflict and the uncertainty. I remember all those things when I hear ‚Pennyroyal Tea.‘

I don’t think a song should be put in a category.

I used to consider the listener. But now I’m in a space where, if I’m not inspired, I can’t really do the music. I can’t feel it.

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.

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.

U2 is an original species… there are colours and feelings and emotional terrain that we occupy that is ours and ours alone.

There’s a lot of pressure putting an album out all over the world and hoping people everywhere like it.

I can write a song in about an hour if it’s a simple country song.

We have a Boesendorfer piano that I play every day. It keeps my brain and my fingers active.

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

I do put a lot of God in my music, but not because I’m super religious. There are a lot of demons in my music, too. I acknowledge both.

Anybody with a sense of humor is going to put on my album and laugh from beginning to end.

I grew up on the Beatles; I love Linkin Park and Green Day. I heard hip-hop for the first time at 11 and realized what I was missing.

I just want to keep writing music.

I used to – my earliest memory of waking up with a melody in my head was, you know, 8, 9, 10. I’ve always heard kind of melodies in my head.

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

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

I tell my fellow reggaetoneros, keep giving it your all and bring more creativity.

When I was growing up, there were no women in orchestras. Auditioners thought they could tell the difference between a woman playing and a man. Some intelligent person devised a simple solution: Drop a curtain between the auditioners and the people trying out. And, lo and behold, women began to get jobs in symphony orchestras.

If you ever see young artists, and they’re not sounding good, they sound good. They’re good singers. They wouldn’t be where they are if they didn’t sound good. It’s their nerves. Any time you see your favorite artist, and he’s or she’s screwing up or not hitting those notes, it’s not because she can’t hit it or she can’t sing; he or she is scared.

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.

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

There’s been people who’ve rapped and produced – like Kanye – but I don’t feel like on the rapping side there’s ever been a producer who can rap as good as I think I can rap.

When I listen to ‚Nevermind,‘ I hate the production, but there’s something about it that almost makes me cry at times.

Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries.

When I got to New York City when I was 18, I started playing in clubs in Brooklyn – I have good friends and devoted fans on the underground scene, but we were playing for each other at that point – and that was it.

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

It doesn’t bother me when people try to deconstruct my songs – because at least they’re looking at the lyrics, and paying attention to the way the story is told.

I enjoy singing my songs in front of people.

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

I don’t intend to stop making music.

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

I would love to study guitar or trumpet.

But when I hear a great song, I can’t help but be inspired by it, regardless of whatever genre that song falls under.

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

I wanted to drop three albums in a year because no one had done it. It was bold, unheard of.

Occasionally, I hanker for the time when I sold more records, but I don’t sit and drool about it. When I do look at early footage of Talking Heads, I realise I was just a wreck.

Compton got such a legacy in hip-hop.