For a long time I didn’t want to do a solo thing, but there comes a point where everyone else is going outside of The Strokes and The Strokes filtering process.
People often put me in a V-neck tennis club sweater, driving a Bentley, but my life wasn’t like that.
Compared to people in Africa, I think we’ve all had privileged upbringings.
But it can be hard to experiment when you’re in a band.
Boarding school didn’t feel like my world, I felt like an alien; people there had a lot of money.
Birth is a beautiful thing.
The artistic element of Manhattan has kind of moved to Brooklyn. Has it changed it? Yeah. Has it ruined it? I would say no. It is what it is. I say better that than an urban war zone.
It’s that feeling when you hear your favourite song. That feeling, whether you’re in a car, at a party or alone at home or in bed and you hear this song and it just hits you so strong – that’s what we aim for.
I guess the best thing about marriage is the fact you’ve got the coolest partner you can imagine by your side for all the things you’re going to face in your life. So far, Juliet’s been there for me. She’s been good for my voice, good for my everything.
We’re so quick to point out our own flaws in others.
It was 100,000 years before we figured out what to do with fire. Imagine cavemen, sitting in front of a fire, eating raw meat for 100 thousand years.
I don’t shake at the site of alcohol anymore. I don’t feel the need for it. If anything I’ll get stoned. I always told myself if it got to the point that it was affecting my songwriting and music that I’d stop. And it did get to the point.
Who you are vs. who you wish you were: Who wins?
I see myself out of my own eyes, which means I have no idea what’s going on the other way around. I just think I try to be a good person, and I fail.
Don’t you dare get to the top and not know what to do.
I think a lot of people study the rules too much and then don’t know how to be creative.
A band is a good way to break up a friendship.
I think all of Manhattan has pretty much become a bar-slash-nightclub-slash-restaurant. There were always pockets of that. But now every corner of Manhattan is that.
No one leaves an old friend unless they are ashamed.
My parents separated when I was eight. I grew up with my mom alone.
The best solutions are often simple, yet unexpected.