Quotes from Curt Smith

Tears For Fears is my ultimate passion.

I went to live in New York and released a solo album that I now know was very bad. Roland kept on with the Tears For Fears name. It was a bad split.

The nature of Tears For Fears was there was always two of us.

I don't believe that what Tears for Fears has done, and continues to do, can be pigeonholed into a genre or decade.

Tears for Fears is me and Roland.

My father always worked away, and died when I was 17, but I hated him by that point. It hit me later in life, but back then I was teenage and angry.

When you're writing for a movie, you're trying to capture the emotion of a scene. I find it a fascinating process.

I just have to sell enough records to continue financing making more records.

I don't think we ever really think about it when we're doing it, because if you sort of go in with a plan of attack, it tends to take away the natural rhythm of songwriting.

American rock was, and still is to some extent, a closed shop. REO Speedwagon, Toto, Boston, Foreigner all those bands, and I wouldn't be able to tell which from which.

People forgot about us, which was what we wanted. We could be left alone without any pressure to make music.

We've never considered ourselves overtly political, but when it comes to English politics - people like Margaret Thatcher - you cannot just stand by and ignore all that's happening around us.

Sometimes albums can be quick, sometimes they take forever, and we're very good at taking forever.

I like the country, the peace and quiet, because the music business is so hectic.

Having lawyers involved never leads to good things.

I think psychology still has a sway over everything we do, but music, in and of itself, is the therapy.

I saw a band called The Electric Guitars, from Bristol. I described them to Roland, and he just started playing a riff on guitar and said, 'Do they sound like this?' And they did.

When I get some time off, I don't even want to see people half the time.

People don't really buy records anymore, so record companies won't invest in bands like us. They want cookie-cutter acts.

Japanese Breakfast has recorded a beautiful, ethereal reimagining of 'Head Over Heels.'

We just weren't a hip band. I mean we recorded our second album in Bath at a time when everyone else was recording in New York or Los Angeles.

The only formula we have when we work together is that we both have to have a product we can endorse when we finish. Something we both like. It's a matter of compromise. In the end what you get is what both of us can agree on. In that comes Tears for Fears. I don't know what the mix or magic is, that's just what it is.

New York was a fantastic place to disappear because no one cares who you are. No one bothers you. In my ten years living there I was never once asked for an autograph or stopped on the street. It was an absolute joy. I gave myself time and space to get to know myself more.

Due to the Internet, we don't perform new songs until a release. Don't get me wrong, I love new technology, but in the case of a new song we would like the original recording and production to be heard first.