I wanted to be in a punk band before I had even heard any punk music.

Music, even with these dial-up connections you have to the Internet, is very practical to download.

I always want to create and do things, or draw.

If one plays good music, people don’t listen and if one plays bad music people don’t talk.

The immigration issue is, I recognize, one that generates a lot of passion, but it does not make sense for us to want to push talent out.

Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.

There may be a great fire in our hearts, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke.

You can’t always write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say, so sometimes you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream.

Music is the voice that tells us that the human race is greater than it knows.

It is natural to want to have a future.

I don’t like to feel like I’m in a club when I’m in my car and I turn on the radio. Anything that ceases to be a song and just sounds like house music kind of stresses me out.

Hawaii is paradise. It sounds cheesy to say it, but there’s music in the air there.

I wanted to have the adoration of John Lennon but have the anonymity of Ringo Starr. I didn’t want to be a frontman. I just wanted to be back there and still be a rock and roll star at the same time.

I always loved that old song ‚Banks of the Ohio‘ – it was always such a man’s song, so I’ve always wanted to record it.

Music is the art of the prophets and the gift of God.

I really love training and being in good shape, and it’s so much a part of my life now, so it never really feels like work to me.

Speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again.

I was kind of secretly hoping one of my kids would go out and make a million bucks. So when they put me in a home, at least I’ll have a window with a view.

If you’re going to spend two years of your life on something, it has to matter to you; you have to be passionate about it.

I’m not a supermodel. That’s not what I do. What I do is music. I want my fans to feel the way I do, to know what they have to offer is just as important, more important, than what’s happening on the outside.

Five or six songs leaked from the original version of ‚Encore.‘ So I had to go in and make new songs to replace them.

I never went to rock concerts when I was a kid. I didn’t see any rock & roll bands.

If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.

Kanye West is my favorite artist.

We moved into the back, made it into a little 50s sitting room and started to sell the records. We had an immediate success. For one thing, these Teddy Boys were thrilled to buy the records.

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 leave the genre labeling to other people. I really do. If I were to think too hard about it, that would stifle you creatively. If you think too hard about who other people want you to be as an artist, it stops you from being who you want to be as an artist.

Music is this divine thing, the closest that we can get to something divine. It’s like this instinct we all own, and some of us have found a way to hear that music and write it down and share it with people.

As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with words.

In my heart, I am always a Raider.

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.

If you wish to be a writer, write.

Science is not only a disciple of reason but, also, one of romance and passion.

The reason I don’t tour is that I don’t know how to front a band. What would I do? I can’t really play anything well enough to deal with that situation.

Mariah and Whitney Houston were my goddesses growing up.

Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.

I’m no hillbilly singer.

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?

A man’s face as a rule says more, and more interesting things, than his mouth, for it is a compendium of everything his mouth will ever say, in that it is the monogram of all this man’s thoughts and aspirations.

I can get where some scientists would say comedians are crazy. What you have to understand: A lot of comedians are dealing with a dark passion. A lot of these are guys coming from a tumultuous life, including myself. Some people need outlets, a way to express yourself.

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

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

If I am a cup maker, I’m interested in making the best cup I possibly can. My effort goes into that cup, not what people think about it.

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

I like having my hands in the clay. I like the movie-making process.

A letdown is worth a few songs. A heartbreak is worth a few albums.

On Saturday afternoons when all the things are done in the house and there’s no real work to be done, I play Bach and Chopin and turn it up real loudly and get a good bottle of chardonnay and sit out on my deck and look out at the garden.

It’s terrifying to play your favorite band’s song in front of your favorite band.

On the other hand, what I like my music to do to me is awaken the ghosts inside of me. Not the demons, you understand, but the ghosts.

I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.

‚Bellyache‘ is totally fictional. I like writing about things that aren’t real. The song is about not trusting anyone and then putting trust in yourself and realizing that you don’t know what you are doing, either. Or realizing that things you do with a group of people that you think are cool in the moment are ultimately all on you.

I’ve had mixtapes that have been better than albums I’ve heard from other artists. I take my time; I put my heart into it.

The prospect of music being detachable from time and place meant that one could start to think of music as a part of one’s furniture.

Music is in my DNA!

I remember talking with Arcade Fire after their first record, when they were getting all kinds of offers from major labels, and I don’t think I gave them any advice. They survived that whole onslaught pretty well anyway without me.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the ambition of the great painters was to make paintings that were like music, which was then considered as the noblest art.

Red is such an interesting color to correlate with emotion, because it’s on both ends of the spectrum. On one end you have happiness, falling in love, infatuation with someone, passion, all that. On the other end, you’ve got obsession, jealousy, danger, fear, anger and frustration.

What keeps me motivated is love and passion.

I love football and the intensity of football in Liverpool, this is what is very good for me.

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

One day, I’ll be listening to a bunch of Ray Charles, the next day it’s nothing but Red Hot Chili Peppers. The next day it might be Tupac all day.