Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I try not get too self-aware when writing lyrics.
The cliched rock life never seemed that cool to me.
I don't like to talk about other bands in interviews.
I'm not someone who can dance to a song I don't like.
I think there's some pretty amazing language in the Bible.
A lot of artists write about the same things their whole career.
I love my iPhone; it's great to have a camera around all the time.
The work that Partners in Health do in Haiti benefits the whole world.
It's a lot easier to sabotage your career than to have a career to sabotage.
The idea of dancing to bad house music is something I could never get behind.
Actual patriotism has to do with loving a place enough to try and improve it.
I never really felt super-Texan. It wasn't like I was unhappy, but I wasn't superhappy.
The idea of peer critique, of talking about each other's art - I just found it so useless.
Everyone has their own talents. It's up to the individual to see what you can actually do.
Usually, I think you have most of your musical influences locked down by the time you're 16.
I think filmmakers all secretly wanna be musicians and all musicians secretly wanna be filmmakers.
Whenever you do anything or say anything, you're opening yourself up to criticism. But that's okay.
The film Black Orpheus is one of my favorite films of all time, which is set in Carnival in Brazil.
The film 'Black Orpheus' is one of my favorite films of all time, which is set in Carnival in Brazil.
What I miss [about church] is being forced to be in community with people that aren't the same as me.
Major labels just lost their way. It's like the housing bubble. They lost a sense of the fundamentals.
A lot of people get really stuck in this idea that everything's been done and there's nowhere left to go.
Being in a rock band, I feel a certain responsibility to have a weird haircut. I mean, who else gets to do that?
I just wanted to make something in the world and worry about the rest of it later and not get too caught up in rules.
My parents live near the ocean, and I've spent a lot of time walking through the water at night, being around the water.
I think you have to want to be really famous. It's a lot easier to sabotage your career than to have a career to sabotage.
We're exposed to ideas everywhere. The world is full of ideas. I think that television is a pretty powerful medium in that regard.
I studied the Bible and philosophy in college, and I think in a certain sense that's the kind of stuff that still makes my brain work.
There are so many bands that I'm kind of aware of through media about them, and it ends up filtering my experience of the actual music.
I don't think the emotional quality is the defining quality of the music but it's definitely something that people have picked up on a lot
I feel like I'm kind of a bit of a sponge in a way. Like, if people around me are going through things, I find it very hard not to be empathetic.
I grew up in a somewhat religious family. My dad's family isn't religious at all, but my mom's side of the family is, so I was exposed to church a bit.
I'm not a good hipster - if I let my moustache grow for weeks, it just looks like I have dirt on my face. I'll never have a glorious handlebar moustache.
When I was living in Boston I worked in this store that played the college radio station. I had to listen to it all day, and I didn't care for most of it.
When I was living in Boston, I worked in this store that played the college radio station. I had to listen to it all day, and I didn't care for most of it.
Songwriting is reliant on inspiration, which ideally you don't have that much control over. Songs kind of half make themselves, and then you have to finish them.
I found out a lot of stuff through MTV, and I didn't even have cable, I just saw it at friends' houses. But my culture in junior high was totally influenced by it.
Funny songs aren't usually that good. Like Weird Al and maybe a couple of Beatles songs, but it's kind of hard to bring humor into rock music in an interesting way.
The Flaming Lips have been on Warner Bros. forever, and certainly everything I heard growing up was on a major label in some way, from the Cure to Radiohead to Bjork.
Music is made by individuals. Some artists will be very politically overt in their songs, some will be more subtle. You have to be true to yourself, true to your nature.
Our music may sound big emotionally, but that's more to do with the playing, the level of musicianship and the full-on energy. Often, the lyrics are often quite small and focused.
I think of hip hop as a mass media, radio, MTV thing. It’s been extremely relevant over the last 10 years and rock music is just not anymore—-a tear rolls down my cheek as I say that.
I find myself a lot more open to bands if I just hear their song. It gives you an opportunity to engage with the thing itself and not be overwhelmed by everything else that surrounds it.
If you think about it, if you've ever been to a Catholic service, it's practically a laser light show. It's very dramatic, very theatrical. The outfits they wear, it's all designed to be impressive.
While there are so many beautiful Baroque churches and it's a beautiful artistic tradition, it almost gets hideous and grotesque if you push it further. You can take something beautiful and overdo it.
There's the idea that you have to know how to solve the world's problems in order to feel that something is morally wrong. I'm always back and forth between optimism and depression about the situation.
My favorite English teacher in high school showed me 'Brazil' when I was 15 and it blew my mind. It's one of those movies that's revealed itself in different ways as I've gone back to it over the years.
My favorite English teacher in high school showed me 'Brazil' when I was 15, and it blew my mind. It's one of those movies that's revealed itself in different ways as I've gone back to it over the years.
Years ago, in order to stay sane, I had to really make an effort not to think about how people view us. There's just so much noise, positive and negative, and not much good comes out of thinking about it.
I studied scriptural interpretation, which is more about how people get meaning out of texts, looking at stuff in the Old Testament - Muslims, Christians, Jews, different interpretations of the same texts.