Quotes from The Weeknd

Marriage is scary to me, man.

I spend just as much time on how people hear my music as I do the actual music, no matter how long it takes. I'm such a visual artist as well that it always goes hand-in-hand.

My inspiration is R. Kelly, Michael Jackson, and Prince - for the vocals, anyway.

My production and songwriting and the environment around those vocals are not inspired by R&B at all.

Environment is very important to me. Sometimes I have to perform during the day for festivals, and my music does not work in the daytime. It is nighttime music.

We're all insecure, aren't we? I'm not walking around like I'm macho man or anything.

People always say when they meet me that I'm not what they expect. I assume they think I'm this super dark and depressing guy, but I like to channel all of those emotions into my work.

In the beginning, I was very insecure. I hated how I looked in pictures.

I didn't like the way I looked in pictures - when I saw myself on a digital camera, I was like, 'Eesh.'

I was 14, and I fell in love with Pink Floyd.

I always use Michael as, first and foremost, a vocal inspiration, and 'Off the Wall' was definitely the one that made me feel like I could sing.

When I was making the early stuff, I never expected it to be so big. I was in my own kind of bubble. I never wanted to tour; I just wanted to create music and make a diary I could put out into the world. And sometimes, I became the characters.

Nothing feels better than going onstage and everybody is singing every word - and actually wanting to see you.

A chorus is not easy.

'House of Balloons' was actually supposed to have more songs than it does.

Once youve changed who you are or who youve portrayed in your music, the fans, theyll catch it... Once I feel like the world knows me for anything else but my music, then I feel like I failed.

I usually dont like to spoon feed my audience, because I grew up idolizing story tellers who tell stories using symbolism, so it was in my nature to do the same.

Happiness exist when you don't know a thing

Going home helps the content.

Once you learn to hit, teach yourself to never miss again.

Prince turned experimental music into pop music. 'When Doves Cry,' the whole 'Purple Rain' soundtrack - he was inspired by the Cocteau Twins and new wave pop and brought it into R&B when he first started, and then it became this cool, next-level, kind of hard-to-digest music. Which is what I felt 'House of Balloons' was.

When I write, I write about my surroundings. Sometimes it's light, and sometimes it gets very dark.

I want to make pop cool again, and the only way I can do that is by being ambitious and grand.

I feel like I'm changing pop culture.