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.

How to play music may be known. At the commencement of the piece, all the parts should sound together. As it proceeds, they should be in harmony while severally distinct and flowing without break, and thus on to the conclusion.

I do probably 60 concerts a year in the States. And I go out to clubs in the week. I’m doing new stuff all the time.

You get to a point where it’s like you can’t really do anything right, and people will pick on you for whatever decisions you make, so I just try and take no notice and get on with my music.

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

Mozart’s music is so pure and beautiful that I see it as a reflection of the inner beauty of the universe.

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.

Music is everybody’s possession. It’s only publishers who think that people own it.

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

I don’t know how to function without music. When I’m not making it, I’m listening to it. It gives me courage and takes care of my mind.

I never wanted to sing. I just wanted to play rhythm guitar – hide in the back and just play.

John Lennon was definitely my favorite Beatle, hands down.

I consider myself to have one of the greatest voices in the industry.

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.

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.

I hate talking about music, to tell you the truth.

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 don’t live for the accolades. I’m more so about the music. Making it, and putting it out. Those are the two best feelings.

I always say I wanna work with Alicia Keys. I’m in awe of her.

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

I wanted a name I could shape the music towards. I was going to Miami quite a lot at the time, speaking a lot of Spanish with my friends from Cuba – ‚Lana Del Rey‘ reminded us of the glamour of the seaside. It sounded gorgeous coming off the tip of the tongue.

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

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

My whole life, I’ve sung and listened to music, and since the beginning, I’ve had iTunes and used Apple Music for streaming.

I’m no hillbilly singer.

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

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

The thing that will never go away is that connection you make with a band or a song where you’re moved by the fact that it’s real people making music. You make that human connection with a song like ‚Let It Be‘ or ‚Long and Winding Road‘ or a song like ‚Bohemian Rhapsody‘ or ‚Roxanne,‘ any of those songs. They sound like people making music.

The fame isn’t important to me. It’s a blessing to have. Having so many people that support me, that love me and listen to my music, is beautiful.

In music the passions enjoy themselves.

Music is the melody whose text is the world.

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

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.

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.

I don’t know, I feel desperate when I sing. And I look desperate – it feels like I’m singing for my life, which makes me twitch, if that makes sense.

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

Obviously this song is an achievement for me in my career, but what makes me really feel good is to make Latinos feel proud. To provoke that pride that a pop figure and someone so big in music globally like Drake would sing with me completely in Spanish and create this hit ‚MIA.‘ That’s the best part of it.

I love artists like Prince, who hold on to that element of mystery.

No one sells a song better than the person that wrote it.

I sure lost my musical direction in Hollywood. My songs were the same conveyer belt mass production, just like most of my movies were.

As a songwriter, you respect and appreciate the writings of other people, and I often get asked, are there songs out there I wish I’d written? Yes. There’s many of them!

You just don’t wake up one day and decide that you need to write songs.

Chicago gave me more music than any other city in America.

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

It is one thing to record an album but it’s a huge difference when people play it and listen to it and embrace it the way that I do. It has always been my dream to get my music out to the world and have people hear it.

I wanted to prove the sustaining power of music.

Most rock journalism is people who can’t write, interviewing people who can’t talk, for people who can’t read.

I don’t think I’d ever apologise for music I make, no.

Doing the box set is one of those things where you get to rewrite your own history to some extent. We could take out some of the songs that we felt weren’t as strong as some of the others, so you look better.

I like Cardi B!

I really wish I knew what I was doing because I’d be writing hit songs every minute.

I always had music growing up, but music was also like a journal. It was like my personal diary or personal journal. A lot of the things I couldn’t express to an individual, I would express them in my music.

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.

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’ve dreamed about doing music since I was three or four years old.

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.

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.

The opera is to music what a bawdy house is to a cathedral.

Honestly, I never really put the mic down.