I never wanted to look pretty on stage and sing about something we’ve all heard about before.

Factoring in millions of people when I’m writing a song is not a good idea. I don’t ever do it.

It’s almost schizophrenic who I portray in my music.

It’s like, remember who you always were, where you came from, who your parents were, how they raised you. Because that authentic self is going to follow you all through life, so make sure that it’s solid so it’s something that you can hold on and be proud of for the rest of your life.

When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.

Everyone assumes I practise all of my own laws but I don’t. I think anybody who did would be a horrible ugly person to be around.

Yes, the Bible should be taught in our schools because it is necessary to understand the Bible if we are to truly understand our own culture and how it came to be. The Bible has influenced every part of western culture from our art, music, and history, to our sense of fairness, charity, and business.

Let us begin by committing ourselves to the truth to see it like it is, and tell it like it is, to find the truth, to speak the truth, and to live the truth.

Whenever I write a novel, music just sort of naturally slips in (much like cats do, I suppose).

‚Kiss Land‘ wasn’t about what people wanted to hear on the radio. It was the state of mind I was in – introverted, like David Cronenberg’s ‚Naked Lunch.‘ You didn’t know if you were hearing a chorus or a verse. It was just my thoughts.

I’m wallowing in the whole idea of just being a guy out there with a band, with songs. It’s a real enjoyment.

My life is not to be somebody else’s impact – you know what I mean?

People tried to change my concept of what music is. That music is work, but it’s not like that.

Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true.

All I can do is try to create my own brand and have people appreciate me for that.

I was very into making the Big Artistic Statement – it had to be innovative; it had to be cutting edge. I was desperately keen on being original.

I have to admit I’ve found myself doing the same things that a lot of other rock stars do or are forced to do. Which is not being able to respond to mail, not being able to keep up on current music, and I’m pretty much locked away a lot. The outside world is pretty foreign to me.

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 taught myself how to play the guitar, I taught myself how to play the drums, and I kind of fake doing both of them. But drumming comes more natural to me, and it just feels better.

With music, you often don’t have to translate it. It just affects you, and you don’t know why.

Pretty much my whole life, I’ve been a performer and have loved singing and writing songs in my room for my own ears.

I can’t see myself singing the same song twice in a row. That’s terrible.

Originality is really important.

Whenever I make music, it reflects where I’m at mentally.

I love story songs because I’ve always loved books.

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.

Writing for other artists helped me figure out that magic you have to capture to make everyone connect with a song.

People are used to music that justifies street culture but something that’s not touched on is why these kids act the way they act, live the way they live.

Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.

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

I really learned to sing in church, I think, really with emotion.

If you’re gonna make connections which are innovative… you have to not have the same bag of experiences as everyone else does.

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.

My songs are like my children – I expect them to support me when I’m old.

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.

I meant what I said and I said what I meant.

People – especially white people – they want me to be a role model just because of the life I lead. The things I say in my songs, they expect it of me.

I’m confident in who I am. I’ve come to a place in my life where I’ve accepted things that are me, as opposed to feeling pressure to explain myself to people around me. That’s just the way I’ve always tried to be. It didn’t change when I became a star.

The Heads were the only band on that scene that had a groove.

I don’t make people bend over backwards, and I don’t like that in people. I am definitely no diva.

I just wanted to be a composer; I became an actor by default, really. I got a scholarship to a college of music and drama, hoping to take a scholarship in music. But I ended up as an acting student, so I’ve stuck with that for the last 50-odd years.

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

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

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

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.

It is only a man’s own fundamental thoughts that have truth and life in them. For it is these that he really and completely understands. To read the thoughts of others is like taking the remains of someone else’s meal, like putting on the discarded clothes of a stranger.

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.

In 7th grade, I believe, I wrote my first rap song. It was about everything I was seeing, everything that was going on around me.

Nothing feels better than going onstage and everybody is singing every word – and actually wanting to see you.

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.

I cannot with any real integrity perform songs I’ve done for 25 years. I don’t need the money. What I need is to feel that I am not letting myself down as an artist and that I still have something to contribute.

They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus, that means guns, sex, lies, video tapes, but if I talk about God my record won’t get played Huh?

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.

Even though I was very shy, I found I could get onstage if I had a new identity.

I’ve always tended to write songs prolifically.

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?

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.

What makes a song last is real content from a mind that is thinking a little bit harder about certain things. A lot of artists don’t really think that hard.

The vibe on ‚Starboy‘ comes from that hip-hop culture of braggadocio, from Wu-Tang and 50 Cent, the kind of music I listened to as a kid.