Quotes from The Weeknd

When you're traveling constantly, every day you become inspired, and it shows in my work, sonically, lyrically, visually. Conversations with women with different accents and stories told in those accents. I like to create characters based on different people I've met, and relationships. I like to tell stories loosely based on real-life events.

When people meet me, they say that I'm really kind - contrary to a lot of my music.

When I was born, that was the music my mother was listening to. Michael Jackson is a third parent to me.

The last thing you want is to not be recognized for all of the hard work you put in.

To be recognized for the hard work my team and I put into 'Starboy' is an honor.

At one point, I didn't care. Now I want as many people to hear my music as possible.

I feel like the way I was raised was to be able to see through all the titles in this world - from religion to race.

I mean... in life... what relationship is easy?

Let's be honest. Canada wasn't ever cool.

All of my music is honest.

I've grown accustomed to hotels and drastic climate change.

Going to a therapist is not something you do when you're growing up as a street kid in Toronto.

The Joker that Christopher Nolan created in 'The Dark Knight' had the scar across his mouth, and the first time you heard his explanation for it, he makes you believe that's how he got it. But then you get into the film, and every time he talks about his scar, it's a totally different story.

I want to be remembered as iconic and different.

I don't believe in icons.

I feel like everything we do comes down to how it looks. Even no branding is branding. For example, you had no face or image to put to my music at first. That was branding.

It's hard to wrap my head around the fact that there are people who can't or won't see what Black Lives Matter is trying to accomplish.

The mind of a 19-year-old is very different from the mind of a 26-year-old. You grow. You get into better relationships. You experience more, meet more people, better people. But when you're in a dark hole at an earlier point in your life - you write about the mindset you're in at that moment.

Taylor Swift's audience can listen to me, but so can the street kids. I want to touch it all.

I just kept touring and touring until it became second nature to go onstage, perform, and sing.

The Internet, man, is a beautiful thing.

Literally wrote 'Starboy' in 30 minutes.

I wrote a song with Ed Sheeran that was kind of spontaneous.

'House of Balloons' was special because I had no deadlines, and nobody knew me, so there were no expectations. Spent a year making it perfect. Every song had at least, like, 7 different versions to them before picking the right one.