Quotes from Walter Becker

I'm not interested in a rock/jazz fusion.

ABC had all these schlocky, bubblegum acts, and we had to come up with suitable material for them. In which we were amazingly unsuccessful.

You can't always count on the devices, attitudes, and conceits that stood you in good stead in 1972 or 1973, or 1978-79, to still have the same impact all these years later.

If there's a strange way to do something, I would certainly like to know about it. I feel that I owe that to my public.

We opened for the Kinks, the Beach Boys, the Guess Who, Chuck Berry, Sha Na Na. We opened for Cheech and Chong - I opened for Cheech, and Don opened for Chong.

We've been allowed to operate unmolested on the fringes of the music scene, really. That's where we enjoy it most.

We try to write things that work on a variety of levels at the same time: A sleek exterior with a turbulent lyric.

I learned a lot from the various artists I produced. Either you see them doing something that you do want to do it, or you see them doing something the way you don't want to do it.

I listen to a mixture of old jazz, contemporary, pop, some world beat stuff and various odds and ends.

It's interesting how some songs really lend themselves to performance in a big public venue and performance by a band and so on, and so they're even more successful in that context than they were on the record.

What about that Dave Brubeck live album, with a version of 'Like Someone in Love' on it, and long sax solos by Paul Desmond? That's what got me hooked on jazz.

What gets people into trouble with records now is that they want to build something up without substantial musical ideas. Without that as a foundation, you can add all the layers of sound you want - it's still going to sound like a mess.

I think what television and video games do is reminiscent of drug addiction. There's a measure of reinforcement and a behavioural loop.

From a linguistic point of view, you can't really take much objection to the notion that a show is a show is a show.

The more of what our music does violates the premise of its format that it's presented in, the better. So, hearing our music in the supermarket, a Muzak version, is great.

There was a time in my life when one aspect of my lifestyle called for watching a lot of television.

Singing, for me, means singing as loud as I can.

Going out and looking for managers is like going out and looking for rattlesnakes.