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.

I used to think that, given enough goodwill, anybody would be able to ‚get‘ any music, no matter how distant the culture from which it came. And then I heard Chinese opera.

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

Music keeps the heart porous in many ways.

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.

Punk was defined by an attitude rather than a musical style.

Bob Dylan is like an alien on this earth, and I love him! I cried when I saw him play live because I was so close to him.

I’m a huge fan of R. Kelly’s. He’s a musical genius and probably the most prolific artist of the generation before mine.

I’ve noticed a lot of younger artists have less fear of doing different sorts of things, whether it’s various types of music, or gallery artists moving between video and sculpture and drawing.

All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.

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

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.

There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.

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

It is impossible to experience one’s death objectively and still carry a tune.

Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one’s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.

When you draw or paint a tree, you do not imitate the tree; you do not copy it exactly as it is, which would be mere photography. To be free to paint a tree or a flower or a sunset, you have to feel what it conveys to you: the significance, the meaning of it.

That thing about being an icon, the fifth Beatle, I just found it so freaky.

It’s always great to perform at home in the good ol‘ U.S.A.

‚Wrecking Ball‘ is a great song.

Music comes to me more readily than words.

If I make music and people hate it, you know, whatever. I’ll die someday, and one day, they will too.

I think ‚Invisible‘ is a great song, but I don’t know how accessible it is.

Part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians, poets, and artists, and zoologists, and historians. They also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world. But if it hadn’t been computer science, these people would have been doing amazing things in other fields.

Your personal history is a part of what happens with your hands and your head as you play music.

I’d like to do a completely off-the-wall collaboration. I would like one of my songs to be the hook to a rap song. That would be so much fun!

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.

Some people are making music just for numbers and views.

All I really had was a suitcase and my drums. So I took them up to Seattle and hoped it would work.

I’ve made over 25 studio albums, and I think probably I’ve made two real stinkers in my time, and some not-bad albums, and some really good albums. I’m proud of what I’ve done. In fact it’s been a good ride.

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

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.

Even though I’ve been putting out bodies of work for years, ‚Beauty Behind the Madness‘ felt like the beginning.

I was doing these performance art pop music pieces in the city. And they were a bit on the eccentric side I suppose. So people started to call me Gaga after the Queen song ‚Radio Gaga.‘

Music has to be sort of ignorable sometimes.

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.

People should just buy a CD and rip it. You are legal then.

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

I’m no hillbilly singer.

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

A composer is a guy who goes around forcing his will on unsuspecting air molecules, often with the assistance of unsuspecting musicians.

It’s about the stories. If I write 14 stories that I love, then the next step is to get the environment of music around it to best envelop the story, and all kinds of sonic goodness – sonic goodies.

Doo-wop is special music to me because it’s so straightforward and melody-driven and captures emotions.

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.

Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.

One of my goals from really early on was that if I was ever fortunate enough to be successful in music, I would want to stay the same person and the same songwriter.

Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.

Sometimes I think that there’s a fine line between impressionistic and messy.

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.

It was that famous joke: What’s the last thing the drummer said before he got kicked out of the band? ‚Hey, I wrote a song.‘

Music when healthy, is the teacher of perfect order, and when depraved, the teacher of perfect disorder.

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

No question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious.

Music is my shining light, my favorite thing in the world. T get me to stop doing it for one second would be difficult!

When I do listen to music, I’m more prone to listen to the people I’ve always listened to: George Jones, Otis Redding, Alison Krauss and Emmylou Harris.

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

The album requires a certain focus of mine that I can’t really explain – let’s just say it’s all I can really do while I’m doing it.

I’m not claiming divinity. I’ve never claimed purity of soul. I’ve never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can… But I still believe in peace, love and understanding.

My favorite artists always documented emotion. Marvin Gaye and Al Green and Sade and Aaliyah.

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

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.