We don’t make music – it makes us.

Preaching is the expression of the moral sentiment in application to the duties of life.

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.

Then, when I’m in these relationships with people who are also creative, or creative in their own way, what happens is the attraction is initially there and it’s all unicorns and rainbows. And then they hate me.

To do a dull thing with style-now that’s what I call art.

Art! Who comprehends her? With whom can one consult concerning this great goddess?

We allow no geniuses around our Studio.

Occasionally, I hanker for the time when I sold more records, but I don’t sit and drool about it. When I do look at early footage of Talking Heads, I realise I was just a wreck.

It’s almost schizophrenic who I portray in my music.

I play piano and ukulele, and I taught myself those things just because I wanted to play them.

Painting, I think it’s like jazz.

I grew up listening to the Police, I grew up performing in bars, singing Police songs.

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.

The things that transfixed you as a child, that you found most exciting was not a passing fancy, but a message about what you’re supposed to do.

There are many things I do where the centre of it is… It’s almost more my humanitarian work than art.

The smart thing in the art world is to have one good idea and never have another.

The intensity of the football and how the people live football in Liverpool – it is not a usual.

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

It’s very rare that you get a director that lets you be creative and bring what you feel your character should do or should be.

I was probably 7 years old when I started playing the guitar and writing some serious songs.

I learn poetry, learn text, and that really keeps you alive.

I hardly ever go into the studio with a work complete in my head. It emerges from communal activity.

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.

If music be the food of love, play on.

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.

Robyn is who I am. Rihanna – that’s an idea of who I am.

Writing and cafes are strongly linked in my brain.

When I am writing, I do not distinguish between the natural and supernatural. Everything seems real. That is my world, you could say.

Beauty without expression is boring.

Give a critic an inch, he’ll write a play.

I am an artist, and I have the ability and the free will to choose the way the world will envision me.

I think Mozart’s operas ‚The Marriage of Figaro‘ and ‚Don Giovanni‘ are the two most perfect ever written. The music is magical.

I really, truly believe that writing comes out of the body; of course, the mind is working as well, but it’s a double thing and that doubleness is united. I mean, you can’t separate persona from psyche; you just can’t do it.

But, I’ve always loved John Mayer and I think T-Pain is brilliant.

I have the ’77 Million Paintings‘ running in my studio a lot of the time. Occasionally I’ll look up from what I’m doing and I think, ‚God, I’ve never seen anything like that before!‘ And that’s a real thrill.

Substitute ‚damn‘ every time you’re inclined to write ‚very‘; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.

I would love to study guitar or trumpet.

Art should never try to be popular. The public should try to make itself artistic.

Taylor Swift’s audience can listen to me, but so can the street kids. I want to touch it all.

The typewriting machine, when played with expression, is no more annoying than the piano when played by a sister or near relation.

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

If it wasn’t for baseball, I’d be in either the penitentiary or the cemetery.

I wish I could tell you me and my rock band were traveling around, strung out. No, we were a family band. Straight Partridge Family.

All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. Great works are often born on a street corner or in a restaurant’s revolving door.

It seems like when I was growing up there was more compromise, wanting to work with each other, and I think all of them – all of the lawmakers – have hearts to do what’s right, and they all are passionate about it.

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.

I thought that I wrote songs and wrote music, and that was sort of what I thought I was best at doing. And because nobody else was ever doing my songs, I felt – you know, I had to go out and do them.

I can dance to just about anything.

One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.

There were people who incorporated melody before me, but I would deem myself the first person to successfully rap and sing.

I think that, whatever happens, I’m just happy I’ve written those songs and I’ve made an album. That’s really big for me, and I’m proud of that.

I always tell audiences when I talk about writing: Writing isn’t something I do; writing is something that I am. I am writing – it’s just an expression of me.

Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals, for the most part governed by the impulse of passion.

I very rarely think in words at all. A thought comes, and I may try to express it in words afterwards.

I draw from the crowd a lot.

I’ve tried different things through the years to get some play on mainstream. I’ll try to tailor-make it.

If I didn’t have my films as an outlet for all the different sides of me, I would probably be locked up.

A first-rate soup is more creative than a second-rate painting.

Control thy passions lest they take vengence on thee.

I felt I really wanted to back off from music completely and just work within the visual arts in some way. I started painting quite passionately at that time.

My mother was always fascinated with the fact that I could rhyme so much stuff.