I suppose I am reluctant about being any sort of ‘star’ and I didn’t particularly want to be portrayed as one.
Music in itself carries a whole set of messages which are very, very rich and complex, and the words either serve to exclude certain ones or point up certain others.
If you’ve spent a long time developing a skill and techniques, and now some 14 year-old upstart can get exactly the same result, you might feel a bit miffed I suppose, but that has happened forever.
If you are part of a religion that very strongly insists that you believe then to decide not to do that is quite a big hurdle to jump over. You never forget the thought process you went through. It becomes part of your whole intellectual picture.
The idea that something is uncool because it’s old or foreign has left the collective consciousness.
A culture is the sum of all the things about which humanity can choose to differ.
Some people say Bowie is all surface style and second-hand ideas, but that sounds like a definition of pop to me.
I often say to people that producing is the best paid form of cowardice. When you produce things you almost always get credit, if it’s a good record, but you hardly ever get the blame if it’s not! You don’t really take responsibility for your work.
I think the idea that people walk around to music is very interesting. They are actually creating the soundtrack to their lives as they walk around to it.
Be the first to not do what nobody has ever thought of not doing before.
I can see the use and value of religion, just as I can see the use of mud wrestling, yoga, astronomy and sadomasochism. but I reject the idea that you can’t be a deep human being without it or any of them.
Complexity and intelligence grow from simplicity, not from greater complexity.
If there is a new fascism, it won’t come from skinheads and punks; it will come from people who eat granola and think they know how the world should be.
I’ve got a feeling that music might not be the most interesting place to be in the world of things.
All the best lyrics are written in ten minutes.
The trouble begins with a design philosophy that equates ‘more options’ with ‘greater freedom.’
Ambient music is intended to induce calm and a space to think.
I’m always interested in something when it isn’t familiar to me.
Possessions are a way of turning money into problems.
Most big concerts sound disgusting and awful and insultingly bad. It’s like going to the cinema and been shown a scratchy film which is upsidedown and the bulb had gone on the projector. The quality of large-scale live music is so shocking.