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

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.

Every day I try to be in communication with the universe in an unconscious way.

The true genius shudders at incompleteness – and usually prefers silence to saying something which is not everything it should be.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

There, in the chords and melodies, is everything I want to say. The words just jolly it along. It’s always been my way of expressing what, for me, is inexpressible by any other means.

The question isn’t, ‚What do we want to know about people?‘, It’s, ‚What do people want to tell about themselves?‘

Words are cheap. The biggest thing you can say is ‚elephant‘.

I guess it’s flattering that everyone believed I was those characters, but it also is dehumanizing.

Sometimes I do need to go to karaoke, sometimes I need to relax.

A remark generally hurts in proportion to its truth.

Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things.

Some people are making music just for numbers and views.

Words are also actions, and actions are a kind of words.

We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.

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.

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.

If a victory is told in detail, one can no longer distinguish it from a defeat.

It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear.

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 play the harmonica. The only way I can play is if I get my car going really fast, and stick it out the window.

You can only have one aim per debate.

There is good and mediocre writing within every genre.

I love Chris Brown. He’s a superstar. He’s one of the best singers out there.

All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value.

This thing that I do with caring about the message in my music, it’s not separate from my work as a commercial artist; they’re totally one and the same. I’m always going to be thinking about what my voice means.

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.

Rock ‚n‘ roll is ridiculous. It’s absurd. In the past, U2 was trying to duck that. Now we’re wrapping our arms around it and giving it a great big kiss.

How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself anything less than a god.

There is no waste of time in life like that of making explanations.

Speaking purely from a musical standpoint, I think I am a great performer.

The language of friendship is not words but meanings.

Be generous with kindly words, especially about those who are absent.

The rarest quality in an epitaph is truth.

If God dropped acid, would he see people?

Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts.

When we’re falling in love or out of it, that’s when we most need a song that says how we feel. Yeah, I write a lot of songs about boys. And I’m very happy to do that.

I don’t mind how much my Ministers talk, so long as they do what I say.

I get a more passionate delivery when I just go in the booth and let the music talk.

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.

My mami and papi love my music. They’re always listening to the radio waiting for one of my songs to come on. And when it does, they turn up the volume – and turn it back down when it’s over.

We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.

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

There is only one difference between a madman and me. The madman thinks he is sane. I know I am mad.

One often contradicts an opinion when what is uncongenial is really the tone in which it was conveyed.

What if nothing exists and we’re all in somebody’s dream?

I think that, whatever happens, I’m just happy I’ve written those songs and I’ve made an album. That’s really big for me, and I’m proud of that.

I think music is one of the hero/sheroes of the African-American existence.

Hear reason, or she’ll make you feel her.

My music fights against the system that teaches to live and die.

Considering their impact, you might expect mosquitoes to get more attention than they do. Sharks kill fewer than a dozen people every year, and in the U.S. they get a week dedicated to them on TV every year.

I think the form, the Hollywood movie, I think the quality is obviously always going to be there and I think that the question of taste, there’s always a question of taste.

Your purpose is to make your audience see what you saw, hear what you heard, feel what you felt. Relevant detail, couched in concrete, colorful language, is the best way to recreate the incident as it happened and to picture it for the audience.

What makes us human, I think, is an ability to ask questions, a consequence of our sophisticated spoken language.

I grew up cursing a lot. It felt natural. My parents told me to stop.

Fill the earth with your songs of gratitude.

My goal in music is to create nostalgic moments.

Swearing is industry language. For as long as we’re alive it’s not going to change. You’ve got to be boisterous to get results.

Words may show a man’s wit but actions his meaning.

I was part of Jazzercise class. It was an aerobics routine accompanied by loud music, sounding quite awful to me. Jazzercise was popular in the ’80s and ’90s.

I don’t hate women – they just sometimes make me mad.