It’s always fun to talk about jazz.

When I heard Little Richard, I mean, it just set my world on fire.

The point about melody and beat and lyric is that they exist to engage you in a very particular way. They want to occupy your attention.

I don’t know if I ever feel totally great about a record when I put it out. With every record that I put out, someone has literally got to come pry it from me because when I listen to my own music, I just hear flaws in it.

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

I sing seriously to my mom on the phone. To put her to sleep, I have to sing ‚Maria‘ from West Side Story. When I hear her snoring, I hang up.

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

The whole slacker generation totally didn’t apply to us musically.

For the introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state; since styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions.

I’m wallowing in the whole idea of just being a guy out there with a band, with songs. It’s a real enjoyment.

For me to talk with Obama and the conversation I had with him, I was letting him know that me and my fans have a special connection, and it’s love, and I believe that love is the answer.

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

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

If you consider film an art form, as some people do, then the Western would be a truly American art form, much as jazz is.

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.

I’m the same kid who used to hop the trains with headphones and just go to downtown Manhattan, walk around and listen to music or walk through the city. The fame restricts that. It’s a small complaint in comparison to the benefits I get from it, but the restrictive part is what I don’t like – and the fact that it’s not reversible.

People – especially white people – they want me to be a role model just because of the life I lead. The things I say in my songs, they expect it of me.

I’ve always written songs the same way. You learn different tricks – you learn craft, you learn structure, all that – as you go.

Tupac, Biggie, Jay. Your usual suspects. These were the people that was played in my household.

There’s poetry in being the band that can sell out Wembley but also makes a record in a garage. I don’t like doing what people expect me to do.

Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.

I make good music for long journeys.

I don’t have time to stand around and listen to an 11-minute song.

If you want to make beautiful music, you must play the black and the white notes together.

However, there’s no theme or concept behind Heathen, just a number of songs but somehow there is a thread that runs through it that is quite as strong as any of my thematic type albums.

I listen to music that is of our time and I just get angry.

The truth of it is that every singer out there with songs on the radio is raising the next generation, so make your words count.

The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils.

Music in itself carries a whole set of messages which are very, very rich and complex, and the words either serve to exclude certain ones or point up certain others.

I think ABBA have a pure joy to their music and that’s what makes them extraordinary.

I think what made it difficult for people to get, and still makes it difficult for people to get, is the theatrical nature of the work and the fact that, my music doesn’t exist without the performance-art element.

I always use Michael as, first and foremost, a vocal inspiration, and ‚Off the Wall‘ was definitely the one that made me feel like I could sing.

If you ever see young artists, and they’re not sounding good, they sound good. They’re good singers. They wouldn’t be where they are if they didn’t sound good. It’s their nerves. Any time you see your favorite artist, and he’s or she’s screwing up or not hitting those notes, it’s not because she can’t hit it or she can’t sing; he or she is scared.

I miss people. I miss going anywhere and meeting a random person and saying ‚Hi‘ and having a conversation about life. I love people.

I believe in singing.

A man never tells you anything until you contradict him.

I really like hip-hop and rap; that’s my main influence. I really wanna be more of a hip-hop artist.

‚Kiss Land‘ wasn’t about what people wanted to hear on the radio. It was the state of mind I was in – introverted, like David Cronenberg’s ‚Naked Lunch.‘ You didn’t know if you were hearing a chorus or a verse. It was just my thoughts.

Prayer is simply a two-way conversation between you and God.

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.

I know a lot of artists say this, but it’s hard to put myself in a box. I just write songs that I strongly believe in and that are coming form a special place. There’s no tricks.

Hip-hop saved my life, man. It’s the only thing I’ve ever been even decent at. I don’t know how to do anything else.

I think ‚Hail to the Chief‘ has a nice ring to it.

I vividly remember a conversation I had many years ago in 1974, which marked a turning point in my leadership journey. I was sitting at a Holiday Inn with my friend, Kurt Campmeyer, when he asked me if I had a personal growth plan. I didn’t. In fact, I didn’t even know you were supposed to have one.

I just try to write songs that people are going to have a dialogue about.

What I’ve discovered is that in art, as in music, there’s a lot of truth-and then there’s a lie. The artist is essentially creating his work to make this lie a truth, but he slides it in amongst all the others. The tiny little lie is the moment I live for, my moment. It’s the moment that the audience falls in love.

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

Bob Dylan is like an alien on this earth, and I love him! I cried when I saw him play live because I was so close to him.

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.

If you talk bad about country music, it’s like saying bad things about my momma. Them’s fightin‘ words.

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.

It’s not essential for me to have a big debut week; it’s not essential for me to have big radio records.

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’ll promise to go easier on drinking and to get to bed earlier, but not for you, fifty thousand dollars, or two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars will I give up women. They’re too much fun.

When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control. Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike.

There’s my personal life, my sensitive side, and then me as a performer, sexy and energised and fun.

I booked my first studio at like 12 or 13. Somewhere in that season of my life, singing along with the radio became me wanting to be on radio, you know.

I don’t know anything about music. In my line you don’t have to.

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.

I wanted to get rid of the element that had been considered essential in pop music: the voice.

Factoring in millions of people when I’m writing a song is not a good idea. I don’t ever do it.