Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I'm a terrible Scrabble player.
Sometimes the word dictated the melody.
Most of the songs that I appreciate are lyrically vague.
The way I work, I'm not a confessional singer-songwriter.
Music as a social conduit has always been important to me.
Just don't let the human factor fail to be a factor at all
There's a lot of interesting words, nomenclatures, in science.
I think life is a wondrous thing. I'm happy to try pretty hard.
Some of my earlier songs are kind of more about mental illness.
I think I'm still a little too intense for my own good sometimes.
I just pay attention to what's in my head. That's my number-one rule.
Guitars are kind of just, you know, sexy, especially old vintage ones.
I write a lot more when I'm happy, because you're hopeful, you're motivated.
With digital sound just becomes simply information, not the sum of its parts.
When I'm onstage, I'm completely comfortable, and I feel very vital and alive.
It's like you don't know you're making a record unless you're half-killing yourself.
I put a lot into my records, and I won't release anything I'm not totally thrilled with.
The first notes I still play when I start a sound check are classical. Those are my roots.
The earth almost looks like it's packed down and dense from so many feet treading over it.
Playing the violin and singing and whistling are just three different ways of making sound.
I don't like to disappear between records. I like to play shows while I'm making the record.
I really believe there's more honesty in one live show than there may be in my whole output.
I don't write poetry and then strum some chords and then fit the words on top of the chords.
No, it's not dissatisfaction that inspires me to tinker with my songs, it's just restlessness.
People who are thinking about your music almost as much as you are, that almost never happens.
I still play solo shows. And some of those shows are still some of the best, most gratifying shows.
Well, my main instrument is violin, but I think of myself as a songwriter who happens to play violin.
I still kind of believe this absurd line that if you have to write it down, it's not worth remembering.
Every time I get up in the morning, melodies occur to me and I start trying to shape lyrics to melodies.
I am, in some sense, a writer. Even though I kinda downplay the word thing, I do enjoy writing sometimes.
What you see with your eyes when you're making music is going to have a profound effect on what you hear.
The anti-aging advert that I would like to see is a baby covered in cream saying, 'Aah, I've used too much'
I also don't believe that "everything happens for a reason," which is in a similar category of world-views.
I've always had levity in my songs, so I like to turn things over, twist them around, and make fun of myself.
Songwriting requires some sort of ceremony to even get the process started, and it can be somewhat arbitrary.
My favorite literature to read is fairly dry history. I like the framework, and my imagination can do the rest.
It's not set in stone. I like to keep it rolling and changing, and so I am like, "Great, I get to remake my song."
You can build up expectations for a song before you record it, and then it's like nothing's good enough in the studio.
The idea of writing songs because you're depressed and you need to communicate it somehow, that isn't really true for me.
All the folks I play with come from jazz backgrounds or at least appreciate spontaneity within the parameters of a pop song.
I guess I'm attracted to more archaic words because they can be imbued with more meaning, because their definition is elusive.
Honestly, I didn't have the patience for biology or history in an academic sense, but I always liked the kind of big questions.
Sometimes I just think we're not meant to fly halfway around the world in a day. That some kind of mutation is going to happen.
Sometimes I think I don't have much choice in the matter. It's just what happens, and I'm following my instincts the whole time.
I've done my share of busking, and it's fun until it isn't. There are musicians in the subways that will make you cry, they're so good.
There is something comforting about going into a practice room, putting your sheet music on a stand and playing Bach over and over again.
Songwriters can sort of get away with murder. You can throw out crazy theories and not have to back it up with data or graphs or research.
There's always that struggle between me wanting to keep [song] new and fresh and then be - I can never get with pop songs being so repetitive.
I've always felt that dark lyrics with dark music is pretty useless. Maybe that's a strong statement - not useless, but for me, it's just boring.
Every time I make a record, it's kind of like scarification or something. You work 15 hours until you're stupid. You're just kind of all jittery.