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 think it’s really cool when artists have song titles or album names that are a really conversational sentence.

I can play a lot of different instruments adequately but nothing really well.

What I’m hoping is that every album I’m going to do will give my audience something different, and that they’ll grow as I do.

I love being a part of the country-music community.

Zappa was very technical and impressed by things that were musically challenging – weird time signatures, strange keys, awkward chord sequences. Zappa was important to me as an example of everything I didn’t want to do. I’m very grateful to him, actually.

Music comes to me more readily than words.

I make good music for long journeys.

I wish I could play bass like Larry Graham or Bootsy Collins. My God, I’d give up just about everything else for that.

One of my lungs is half gone, and the other half, because I smoked for years, has a lesion. So I can’t swim anymore and had the swimming pool covered over. Now it’s what I call the dance pavilion, and so I and my friends sit out and put music on and watch people dance.

Never, and I mean never, allow anyone else’s ideas of who you can or can’t become sully your dream or pollute your imagination. This is your territory, and a ‚Keep Out‘ sign is a great thing to erect at all entrances to your imagination.

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

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

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.

Music is one of the most powerful things the world has to offer. No matter what race or religion or nationality or sexual orientation or gender that you are, it has the power to unite us.

When you listen to Ray Charles, there’s never any doubt whose voice that is.

When you’re headlining, people are paying to come see you specifically. It’s a different kind of pressure, because you’ve got to deliver. You’ve got to give these people what they paid for. It’s a different mind state, a different type of mentality, but it’s honestly a pretty good problem to have, you know?

Neil Young is my hero, and such a great example. You know what that guy has been doing for the past 40 years? Making music. That’s what that guy does. Sometimes you pay attention, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes he hands it to you, sometimes he keeps it to himself. He’s a good man with a beautiful family and wonderful life.

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

I was very camera shy. People like hot girls, so I put my music to hot girls and it just became a trend. The whole ‚enigmatic artist‘ thing, I just ran with it. No one could find pictures of me.

I work hard for the audience. It’s entertainment. I don’t need validation.

Environment is very important to me. Sometimes I have to perform during the day for festivals, and my music does not work in the daytime. It is nighttime music.

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.

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

One of my most popular songs, ‚Satellites,‘ I paid $300 for that beat on SoundClick.

There is something about building up a comradeship – that I still believe is the greatest of all feats – and sharing in the dangers with your company of peers. It’s the intense effort, the giving of everything you’ve got. It’s really a very pleasant sensation.

Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense.

I’ve been on tour since I was 16, and I always do meet-and-greets before and after shows, so you kind of build these friendships with people. I have girls come up to me and tell me exactly what’s going on in their love lives.

And as a writer, one of the things that I’ve always been interested in doing is actually invading your comfort space. Because that’s what we’re supposed to do. Get under your skin, and make you react.

I own a ’66 Jaguar. That’s the guitar I polish, and baby – I refuse to let anyone touch it when I jump into the crowd.

If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.

If I wasn’t Bob Dylan, I’d probably think that Bob Dylan has a lot of answers myself.

I want more of my favorite artists or more of the guy that makes the anthems. I want more.

The colored folks been singing it and playing it just like I’m doin‘ now, man, for more years than I know. I got it from them.

Many of my fans often tell me that they listen to my songs to get through things. And therefore, obviously, I hope that they can picture being in a place where things are better… I hope my songs can bring people to a calm place.

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 love to play music. So why endanger that with something like drugs?

I say, ‚Yeah, Taylor Swift.‘ I think she is a smart, beautiful girl. I think she’s making all the right moves. She’s got a good head on her shoulders. She’s surrounded with wonderful people. Her songs are great. She keeps herself anchored. She knows who she is, and she’s living and standing by that.

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’m not really that girl who dreams about her wedding day.

When I’m writing a record, I kind of don’t listen to much music. Just because I want to be inspired solely on the emotion; just based on how it feels.

You see, idealism detached from action is just a dream. But idealism allied with pragmatism, with rolling up your sleeves and making the world bend a bit, is very exciting. It’s very real. It’s very strong.

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

People like music when they’re in love, but they don’t need it as much. You need music when you’re missing someone or you’re pining for someone or you’re forgetting someone or you’re trying to process what just happened.

Facebook and Instagram are both really popular with teens, both in the U.S. and globally across the world. I think what you’re starting to see is that there are all these different ways that people want to share and communicate.

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

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

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

Hip-hop is ever changing but you’ll always have the pack. And you’ll always have those people who are separated from the pack.

The sound and music are 50% of the entertainment in a movie.

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

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

For me, ‚risky‘ is revealing what really happened in my life through music. Risky is writing confessional songs and telling the true story about a person with enough details so everyone knows who that person is.

With music, you often don’t have to translate it. It just affects you, and you don’t know why.

Music keeps the heart porous in many ways.

My dad was into the 1950s doo-wop era. If you look at those groups, or at James Brown, Jackie Wilson and the Temptations in the 1960s, you’ll see you had to be sharp onstage.

Secrets are things we give to others to keep for us.

A film is sort of binary – it either works or it doesn’t work. It has nothing to do with how good a job you do. If you bring it up to an adequate level where the audience goes with the movie, then it works, that is all.

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

If this were all to go away tomorrow, all the big success, I would still be very happy going from bar to bar playing music for people.

Kanye West is my favorite artist.