Quotes from Evan Dando

When I write a song, it's all about the riff - the riff first, then the words come later.

I'd forgotten what it was like to play music and have it be fun so I decided to stop. I wasn't even sure if I was going to make a new record, I was just kinda quitting.

Some of our stuff ends up looking too corporate. I'm going to be a lot stricter from now on.

Even the bands I dig don't have a history of attaining mass consumption.

I guess I'm about ready to promote myself in a more human way. I don't feel quite so insecure.

I have to make rock records occasionally.

Since Elizabeth, I certainly live a healthier lifestyle.

Rock stars wanting to write is even worse than wanting to act in movies, right?

I don't write down my experiences, but I have a very decent memory. I have tons of books in which I write down phrases as they occur to me. That's how I write songs. I'll need a line and I'll go through the books and find it, the right rhyme and everything.

CDs, too. Totally corporate. They look real cheap and soulless and they don't smell of anything.

I've got time, I hope, to make lots of quiet records. So quiet you won't be able to hear them.

It is hard, though, 'cos record labels love to boss you around. I won't let them do that anymore.

My high-school dream was to be in a band, pay my rent and eat - and I've been able to do that for 20 years. So I'm completely content.

The best songs I write in 20 minutes.

But ya have to make videos in the States. Usually ours just look too serious. We haven't got it together.

But Sneaky Pete was great. I didn't bug him about Gram. Not too much, anyway.

For me, it's all about The Dubliners by James Joyce. I love The Dead.

I was hanging out with Jonathan Richman last night.

When there are no women on the tour it can get awful and ugly - constant horrible jokes and gross behaviour. It needs to be leavened with a feminine presence.

I was trying to spend it as quickly as possible. Because I'm so lazy, all that money created a block. I was flying around the world, staying at fancy hotels, having fun and trying to get rid of it as quickly as possible, so I could get on with some more work.

I don't like alcohol, but I still like to mess around with other stuff occasionally. I think it's important I take mushrooms and acid. They're certainly not addictive, so I can't rule that out.

When I was 14 years old, I was a huge fan of the Velvets, the Stooges and the Modern Lovers. They are my three favourite bands. I never get sick of 'em.

I used to have a sort of spiky haircut and it just feels better to have short hair again.

Basically, between 1989 and 1994, I hadn't taken a vacation.