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

Television sounded really different than the Ramones sounded really different than us sounded really different than Blondie sounded really different than the Sex Pistols.

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.

Mariah and Whitney Houston were my goddesses growing up.

I never intended for the Monster Ball to be a religious experience, it just became one.

Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.

To live happily is an inward power of the soul.

Perhaps when music has been shouting for so long, a quieter voice seems attractive.

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

‚Evil men have no songs.‘ How is it that the Russians have songs?

I just know that I’m a fan of all different kinds of genres. You’re supposed to be free doing music, and that’s how I feel.

It doesn’t bother me when people try to deconstruct my songs – because at least they’re looking at the lyrics, and paying attention to the way the story is told.

I wanted to prove the sustaining power of music.

I didn’t live at school, I lived where I could and studied what I enjoyed studying. I took what I wanted from that education but was making my first record at the same time. I don’t know anyone from school. I was just leading a different life. I was really interested in writing and other things.

I like Cardi B!

I’m not claiming divinity. I’ve never claimed purity of soul. I’ve never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can… But I still believe in peace, love and understanding.

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

You just don’t wake up one day and decide that you need to write songs.

It’s so clear that you have to cherish everyone. I think that’s what I get from these older black women, that every soul is to be cherished, that every flower Is to bloom.

I didn’t think it was special to be able to sing.

I never listen to ‚Nevermind.‘ I haven’t listened to it since we put it out. That says something.

I think my first album opened a lot of doors for me to push the freedom of speech to the limit.

I was arrested for lip-syncing karaoke.

There weren’t a lot of career opportunities in crazy-fast hardcore punk, so you didn’t have a lot of ambition, just the love and passion to play music with your friends.

Mozart’s music is so pure and beautiful that I see it as a reflection of the inner beauty of the universe.

Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings the whole day through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life march, as you will.

An operatic voice is like no other.

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

Sometimes I do need to go to karaoke, sometimes I need to relax.

What really matters is how God sees me. He isn’t concerned with labels; he is concerned about the state of man’s soul.

How I love David Bowie.

One of my big fears is people saying my songs are all starting to sound the same.

The effect of music on fashion has been immense, especially hip-hop and urban music.

When I joined Nirvana, I was the fifth or sixth drummer – I don’t know if they’d ever had a drummer they were totally happy with. And they were strangers. There was never much of a deeper connection outside of the music.

Pretty much my whole life, I’ve been a performer and have loved singing and writing songs in my room for my own ears.

You listen to the radio and all the songs sound the same, from 8 in the morning to 12.

As a songwriter, you respect and appreciate the writings of other people, and I often get asked, are there songs out there I wish I’d written? Yes. There’s many of them!

Phish and Dave Matthews really know their audiences and really treat them well.

Just as the soul fills the body, so God fills the world. Just as the soul bears the body, so God endures the world. Just as the soul sees but is not seen, so God sees but is not seen. Just as the soul feeds the body, so God gives food to the world.

Some people focus more on sonics. Some people focus more on story. I focus on both sonics and story.

You know how you either grow up in a Michael Jackson house or a Prince house? For me it was Michael Jackson. I could never decide whether I wanted to be Michael Jackson or marry him.

I used to consider the listener. But now I’m in a space where, if I’m not inspired, I can’t really do the music. I can’t feel it.

I’m not going to make a song just to make a song. The day that I make an album, it’s so that people really know what Bad Bunny’s about.

I’m working on my life story. I’m not decided if it’s going to be a musical or a movie with music in it.

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.

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.

Health is the soul that animates all the enjoyments of life, which fade and are tasteless without it.

Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.

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

I get a thrill meeting kids who are into alternative music.

I won’t be satisfied until people want to hear me sing without looking at me. Of course, that doesn’t mean I want them to stop looking.

I know people said I wasn’t selling out in America, but that was entirely untrue. We sold out all over the world, and every night I looked out into the fans and those front rows that you’re talking about, the tears, the honesty, the inability to not be completely overjoyed because they felt accepted.

Music is a really great creative tool for me, for different roles.

Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman.

I belong to a gospel choir. They know I am an atheist but they are very tolerant.

Music is the art of the prophets and the gift of God.

I don’t think a song should be put in a category.

I need scarcely observe that a poem deserves its title only inasmuch as it excites, by elevating the soul. The value of the poem is in the ratio of this elevating excitement.

And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul.

Sometimes, I want to talk on a song and be angry, because I am angry. Then there’s always a part of me that remembers that this record lives past my being angry, and so do I really want to be angry about that? Is that feeling going to have longevity?

I think maybe people see bands and musicians as some sort of superhero unrealistic sport that happens in another dimension where it’s not real people and not real emotions. So, I grew up listening to Beatles records on my floor. That’s how I learned how to play guitar. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be a musician.