In a certain way, it’s the sound of the words, the inflection and the way the song is sung and the way it fits the melody and the way the syllables are on the tongue that has as much of the meaning as the actual, literal words.

Language is wine upon the lips.

And I saw the sax line-up that he had behind him and I thought, I’m going to learn the saxophone. When I grow up, I’m going to play in his band. So I sort of persuaded my dad to get me a kind of a plastic saxophone on the hire purchase plan.

The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of because words diminish your feelings – words shrink things that seem timeless when they are in your head to no more than living size when they are brought out.

Honestly, I never really put the mic down.

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.

I don’t intend to stop making music.

I sing and play the guitar, and I’m a walking, talking bacterial infection.

I find in my poetry and prose the rhythms and imagery of the best – I mean, when I’m at my best – of the good Southern black preachers. The lyricism of the spirituals and the directness of gospel songs and the mystery of blues are in my music or in my poetry and prose, or I missed everything.

In high school I wanted to be a rock star and was in a lot of bands.

Life is our dictionary.

I’m guarded; I don’t talk much.

I love making music. That’s what I love to do. So I don’t feel like there’s any need to take a break unless I want to.

Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.

A man has a property in his opinions and the free communication of them.

I’ve been a huge fan of Chris Martin forever; it’d be awesome to work with him. He’s really kind, and he’s been really encouraging when we’ve met.

The effect of music on fashion has been immense, especially hip-hop and urban music.

I ain’t never called nobody no redskin. I’ve never been mad, like, ‚Get out of this restaurant, you redskin.‘

Myths can’t be translated as they did in their ancient soil. We can only find our own meaning in our own time.

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

My wife and I tried two or three times in the last 40 years to have breakfast together, but it was so disagreeable we had to stop.

The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak.

Ever since Newton, we’ve done science by taking things apart to see how they work. What the computer enables us to do is to put things together to see how they work: we’re now synthesized rather than analysed. I find one of the most enthralling aspects of computers is limitless communication.

Some people focus more on sonics. Some people focus more on story. I focus on both sonics and story, but music sometimes, just music itself, can turn into more of a maths problem. I guess everything in life is a math problem, but it can be more about an empirical route to getting the symmetry that you want, and this vibe, sonically.

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.

I don’t want to tell President Obama how to make a speech. He’s a much better speech maker than I am. But I think always to tell the truth in a sometimes blatant way, even though it might be temporarily unpopular, is the best approach.

A lot of people from my generation of music are so focused on playing things correctly or to perfection that they’re stuck in that safe place.

My grandfather once ventured upon publishing a volume of hymns. I never heard anyone speak in their favour or argue that they ought to have been sung in the congregation. In that volume, he promised a second if the first should prove acceptable. We forgive him the first collection because he did not inflict another.

Once you’ve changed who you are or who you’ve portrayed in your music, the fans, they’ll catch it… Once I feel like the world knows me for anything else but my music, then I feel like I failed.

You have to listen very carefully and tell the truth if you are going to get a paranoid person to open up to you.

Music is either sacred or secular. The sacred agrees with its dignity, and here has its greatest effect on life, an effect that remains the same through all ages and epochs. Secular music should be cheerful throughout.

I don’t think of Kurt as ‚Kurt Cobain from Nirvana‘. I think of him as ‚Kurt‘. It’s something that comes back all the time. Almost every day.

Always be sincere, even if you don’t mean it.

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

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

It doesn’t bother me when people try to deconstruct my songs – because at least they’re looking at the lyrics, and paying attention to the way the story is told.

Man, that record came out and was real big in Memphis. They started playing it, and it got real big. Don’t know why-the lyrics had no meaning.

If you’re a politician, you might want to learn the Buddhist way of negotiation. Restoring communication and bringing back reconciliation is clear and concrete in Buddhism.

I just have a thing in my brain that when I’m about to do something that’s genuine or authentic, I think of it in song form. I’ll be like, ‚Yo, this is a human emotion that no one talks about.‘

I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.

The educated Southerner has no use for an ‚r‘, except at the beginning of a word.

Whenever the speech is corrupted so is the mind.

Usually, when Nirvana made music, there wasn’t a lot of conversation. We wanted everything to be surreal. We didn’t want to have some contrived composition.

One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.

I’ve always wanted male friends that I could be real intimate with and talk about important things with and be as affectionate with that person as I would be with a girl.

I do put a lot of God in my music, but not because I’m super religious. There are a lot of demons in my music, too. I acknowledge both.

Through Kurt I saw the beauty of minimalism and the importance of music that’s stripped down.

Might, could, would – they are contemptible auxiliaries.

I’ve accomplished enough with the music that I haven’t had to go out there and do other things to over-saturate.

‚House of Balloons‘ was special because I had no deadlines, and nobody knew me, so there were no expectations. Spent a year making it perfect. Every song had at least, like, 7 different versions to them before picking the right one.

Whenever a husband and wife begin to discuss their marriage they are giving evidence at a coroner’s inquest.

In one case out of a hundred a point is excessively discussed because it is obscure; in the ninety-nine remaining it is obscure because it is excessively discussed.

I don’t want to make niche-oriented music.

Every single one of the guys that I’ve written songs about has been tracked down on MySpace by my fans.

Don’t ever call a guy first. The thing they want the most is whatever they can’t have. It sounds really juvenile, but it works.

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

A remark generally hurts in proportion to its truth.

Words are more powerful than some noises. Noises won’t last long. Lyrics are so important, and people don’t realise that.

I’ve had moments when I’ve thought about somebody, picked up the phone to call them and they are on the line already, and I think that maybe there’s some vibration, some connection.

U2’s best work has always been when we didn’t know what we’re doing.

Next time I see you, remind me not to talk to you.