It’s very fun to be the hunter of the sounds. The hunter of the right energy. And it’s not really about if every sound is correct; it’s more the energy – if it hits you in some way, it doesn’t really matter to me if it’s not perfect. I’m still very excited while hunting for songs.

I don’t listen to the radio very much, but that could be because I don’t have a car.

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.

I just was never into performing. It’s just hard work. It’s hard work.

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

Everyone enjoys doing the kind of work for which he is best suited.

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

Cause I’m a musician, I’m not really good at posing and being a model, like, modeling.

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.

In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.

Stand-up comedy is mine: it’s my entity; it’s my brand; I own it. I do it when I want to do it.

I signed for Mohun Bagan and then I got the news that Bhaichung also joined the club. The first day he met me he told me that I have heard about you and you are doing well. I told everyone in my family and friends that Bhaichung told me that.

Uncontrolled, the hunger and thirst after God may become an obstacle, cutting off the soul from what it desires. If a man would travel far along the mystic road, he must learn to desire God intensely but in stillness, passively and yet with all his heart and mind and strength.

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.

When I listen to a song, I don’t say, ‚Oh my gosh, that vocal line she sang was the best thing I ever heard.‘ I’m thinking, ‚That lyric just moves me. That lyric just said what I feel better than I could say it myself.‘

The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake.

I do like Burial; he’s so curiously clumsy, you can’t help but be moved. It’s so un-Hollywood, and the rhythms are so un-danceable.

Do not let spacious plans for a new world divert your energies from saving what is left of the old.

When I was in high school, there were these British blues-rock-type bands with really good guitar players that would jam on one song for half an hour. And as much as I was amazed by some of those guitar players, seeing them prompted me to make a note that that’s not something I could do.

I love music, and after my first experience with movies, I can’t wait to do more.

I was enjoying myself writing, because I don’t know what’s going to happen when I take a ride around that corner. You don’t know at all what you’re going to find there. That can be thrilling when you read a book, especially when you’re a kid and you’re reading stories.

I’ve never written a political song. Songs can’t save the world. I’ve gone through all that.

It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.

It’s insane that, since the Beatles and Dylan, it’s assumed that all musicians should do everything themselves. It’s that ridiculous, teenage idea that when Mick Jagger sings, he’s telling you something about his own life. It’s so arrogant to think that people would want to know about it anyway!

I always say, you gotta play a dive bar like you play an arena, and you play an arena like you play a dive bar.

I kinda like the idea of having an album that’s all me.

From the time that ‚Nevermind‘ came out in September of 1991 to the time that Nirvana was over, it was really just a few years, and a lot happened in those few years.

I need music. It’s like my heartbeat, so to speak. It keeps me going no matter what’s going on – bad games, press, whatever!

You can be passionate about anything.

On life’s vast ocean diversely we sail. Reasons the card, but passion the gale.

I have an immense amount of respect for acting. I’ve always loved movies and was always fascinated by movie-making. But to become an actor, I wanted to commit myself.

In England, football is a big thing to talk about, but Liverpool, it’s a special place. You feel it when you make your first step.

The songs are my lexicon. I believe the songs.

When you cook under pressure you trade perfection.

My fans love me for me, my beats, my rhymes.

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

I started out as a poet. I’ve always been a poet since I was 7 or 8. And so I feel myself to be fundamentally a poet who got into writing novels.

I find a lot of inspiration through visuals. When I was 12, I saw Aurora’s ‚Runaway‘ music video. Something inside me clicked, like, ‚That is what I want to do, no matter whether it goes anywhere or not.‘

And I try to give the best bang for the buck. I love performing more than anything else.

I try to sprinkle a little gems and jewels in the music that people could use in their own life.

When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily I should have been in that band – or at least in a Pixies cover band.

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

Being an artist doesn’t just mean you have a song. That doesn’t make you an artist. The word ‚artist‘ means so many different things, and I feel like to be a real one, you really have to do it all. The people that I think of as artists – Tyler the Creator, Childish Gambino, Kanye West – are doing the most.

I think California has the best energy.

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.

If you’re a surfer, you just want to surf. You don’t know if anyone’s going to see you, and you don’t really care if they see you. You just live for that feeling.

All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff.

Where I come from it was really unheard of to be at a party and someone says, ‚What kind of music do you make?‘, and you say, ‚Pop music.‘ You may as well have ‚I’m not cool‘ stamped on your forehead.

In 7th grade, I believe, I wrote my first rap song. It was about everything I was seeing, everything that was going on around me.

Howard Zinn was magical as a teacher. Witty, irreverent, and wise, he loved what he was teaching and clearly wanted his students to love it, also.

You get to a point where it’s like you can’t really do anything right, and people will pick on you for whatever decisions you make, so I just try and take no notice and get on with my music.

I grew up in a musical family; the majority of my growing up was done in Hawaii. It’s what we do. You sing, you dance, you play ukulele and you drink.

Getting a great idea with song writing is a lot like love. You don’t know why this one is different, but it is. You don’t know why this one is better, but it is. It sticks in your head, and you can’t stop thinking about it.

Nothing is so intolerable to man as being fully at rest, without a passion, without business, without entertainment, without care.

There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we’d all love one another.

Marriage is a series of desperate arguments people feel passionately about.

The vibe on ‚Starboy‘ comes from that hip-hop culture of braggadocio, from Wu-Tang and 50 Cent, the kind of music I listened to as a kid.

I never had to choose a subject – my subject rather chose me.

I just love working with Eminem. He’s just one of my favorite rappers, and his lyrics – he’s a true poet, and I enjoy that about him.

No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.

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