I have to say, I’m good with gifts. If I find something perfect for a certain person, I’ll just get it and put it away in a kind of nook under my bed – a little gift hutch, if you prefer.
Art is the image of life, it’s purpose simply to enhance it.
I’m happy to feed the illusion that I’m a lazy recluse.
I’m really grateful. But I never had the rock star dream. I thought it would be cool to be a modern-day composer.
The best artists are the ones that work the hardest, and if you work hard enough, you’ll eventually experience the happy accidents that are art.
If you’re in a bar and a certain song comes on and the vibe is just different, it evokes the kinds of things that you want to feel, and if music can do that it’s a very special thing.
The problem with touring isn’t the traveling and the shows, it’s the vegetal state you get into.
Vanity can easily overtake wisdom. It usually overtakes common sense.
Make sure your heart is singing right until the day it stops.
Doing heroin is like walking around with a terrorist as your friend. It’s like taking a terrorist around to parties You never know when it’s going to blow up on you.
Kids are always honest, ’cause they don’t think they’re ever going to die.
When you first start writing a song, it’s fun, then when you start recording it, it’s fun, but by the time you’ve finished recording it, you’re sick of it.
Whenever I go to shows, I end up looking at what shoes the guy onstage is wearing and the jacket he’s got on. And when you know everything’s gonna be under scrutiny, it makes you feel more comfortable if you have cool stuff.
If it doesn’t start with you, it dies with you.
In most cultures, you can have a kid at 18 and it’s not a big thing. It’s not like, ‘Oh, you’ve got to get a different haircut and move to the suburbs and act, like, 35.’
It’s not like I wake up and songs flow out of me.
A tour is the most intense, stimulating way to hear music; it’s the best form to receive it. There’s genuine excitement from people. I feel like we’ve stepped up a level.
You know some of the people in The Strokes, yeah, their parents had success – but we didn’t live like yuppies.
I’m not a pop song lyric writer. I can’t just focus on one simple meaning or even a double entendre.
The thing for me is I never had this burning desire to do a solo record my whole life.