Tony Visconti and I had been wanting to work together again for a few years now. Both of us had fairly large commitments and for a long time we couldn’t see a space in which we could get anything together.

You’ve got to reach a hand of friendship across the aisle and across philosophies in this country.

I used to sing songs and write with my uncle, Bill Owens.

I think business has to be stupider. I want to do really straightforward, stupid business – just talk to me like a 4-year-old. And I refuse to negotiate. I do not negotiate. I can collaborate. But I’m an artist, so as soon as you negotiate, you’re being compromised.

I could imagine at a certain age, when I have no vocal cords left, that I would find a young man who could sing my parts for me. But I don’t see why I would stop.

Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.

Looking back on the production of ‚Nevermind,‘ I’m embarrassed by it now. It’s closer to a Motley Crue record than it is a punk rock record.

My songs always sound a lot better in person than they do on the record.

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

If two smart, intelligent, clever guys sit together on a table, and you both want the same, where can be the problem? We all want to be successful.

It’s easy to make an album full of great songs. But I want people to go for the ride. The songs have to make sense together.

I think, generally, I just cannot really envision life without writing and producing records and singing.

Teamwork is so important that it is virtually impossible for you to reach the heights of your capabilities or make the money that you want without becoming very good at it.

I am confident that partnering my Dollywood Company with a great company like Gaylord will create something truly special.

Do not be afraid to ask for help. Nobody gets through college on their own.

I knew the second I finished the first record – ‚House Of Balloons‘ – and had all this material leftover that a trilogy would be best.

If you’re going to change things, you have to be with the people who hold the levers.

Together, we can help make sure that every family that walks into a restaurant can make an easy, healthy choice.

In this day and age, when you can use a machine or computer to simulate or emulate what people can do together, it still can’t replace the magic of four people in a room playing.

I grew up writing songs in my room on GarageBand, and I would make the beats just out of layering my vocals over and over again. Very Imogen Heap-inspired.

When you create circumstances together, when you try everything, then you can lose. But you need to show the importance.

My friend James Cameron and I made three films together – True Lies, The Terminator and Terminator 2. Of course, that was during his early, low-budget, art-house period.

I’d like to do a completely off-the-wall collaboration. I would like one of my songs to be the hook to a rap song. That would be so much fun!

I feel very strongly that SpaceX would not have been able to get started, nor would we have made the progress that we have, without the help of NASA.

But innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we’ve been thinking about a problem.

I rely on other people every day of my life.

I think we understand that for the Court to work well, we have to not only respect but genuinely like each other.

Synergy is what happens when one plus one equals ten or a hundred or even a thousand! It’s the profound result when two or more respectful human beings determine to go beyond their preconceived ideas to meet a great challenge.

Working with J Balvin has undoubtedly been an unparalleled experience.

All of my records, I produced, put together completely. All of them. Maybe Drake might come with an idea, and I might finish it. You gotta remember what a producer is. Quincy Jones is a producer.

We came up with TDE. As competitive as rap is, and as much as we’re trying to exceed the standards we set for ourselves, we take their wins as our wins, too.

Since I was old enough to understand what a songwriter/producer is, I’ve had a curiosity about how Max Martin creates what he creates. I wanted to see that happen. I wanted to be there. I wanted to learn from him.

The greatest progress is in the sciences that study the simplest systems. So take, say, physics – greatest progress there. But one of the reasons is that the physicists have an advantage that no other branch of sciences has. If something gets too complicated, they hand it to someone else.

I have a producing partner named Stephen Hamel, and we’ve been trying to generate material.

When the best leader’s work is done the people say, ‚We did it ourselves.‘

The day-to-day making of policy is arguing all the time. You’re trying to get the right approach and the right answer, and there are moments that aren’t very pleasant. But in the end, you look at the overall product.

A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends.

There’s more good music being made now than ever before.

The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.

To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age. ‚Tis much better to do a little with certainty & leave the rest for others that come after you.

Usually, when you go in to make a record, you have 30 songs, and you record 30 of them, and 12 of them make it to the record.

We walk together, we move together, we think together, we resolve together, and together we take this country forward.

No cricket team in the world depends on one or two players. The team always plays to win.

When I started making my own records, I had this idea of drowning out the singer and putting the rest in the foreground. It was the background that interested me.

Our best thoughts come from others.

Usually I start with a beat, I start making a beat, and my producer side is making the beat. And on a good day, my rapper side will jump in and start the writing process – maybe come up with a hook or start a verse. Sometimes it just happens like that. A song like ‚Lights Please‘ happens like that.

I sincerely hope I can contribute to the progress there has been in relations between Jews and Catholics since the Second Vatican Council in a spirit of renewed collaboration.

Things must be done by parties, not by persons using parties as tools.

Writers have to put up with this editor thing; it is ageless and eternal and wrong.

Robert Fripp and I will be recording another LP very soon. It should be even more monotonous than the first one!

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.

And so I think that the idea of America working with other countries to solve problems is good for us, and it is part of digging us out of the ‚my way or the highway‘ approach that was evident in the previous eight years.

I was approached about having my own network many, many years ago. There were some people who wanted to start up a network, and I didn’t want to get that involved in the business aspect of it.

Strength lies in differences, not in similarities.

Netscape was able to get the government working on its behalf.

The most genius thing about the way I create is to create with other geniuses.

I like the idea of a kind of eternal music, but I didn’t want it to be eternally repetitive, either. I wanted it to be eternally changing. So I developed two ideas in that way. ‚Discreet Music‘ was like that, and ‚Music for Airports.‘ What you hear on the recordings is a little part of one of those processes working itself out.

The good thing about having chemistry is, when you get to the improv section of a scene, you’ve got somebody to feed off. It can go on and on and on, and the sky’s the limit.

I always tell people that you should only hire people to be on your team if you would work for them.

When you have that respect from your teammates, it makes it a lot more comfortable.

When individual members of the team are highly disciplined, they can be trusted and, therefore, allowed to operate with very little oversight.