Quotes from Cedric Bixler-Zavala

As corny as it sounds, and not to sound like a hippie, I think there are these spirit forces in nature, and we have to be careful not to offend them.

Growing up, I learned the value of sticking up for my brown-skinned friends amongst my white-skinned friends.

Our music would probably be a really dark ocean, so you may not know where you are. It's not so literal. It's like a David Lynch movie.

If I speak my version of Spanish in Spain, they laugh. Same with Mexico. It's an alien world to me.

To be involved in the subculture of punk rock puts you in a minority.

I constantly ask why one of my kids has the tantrums that he does, and it's not because he sees videos of me acting like that onstage but because we're bound by blood.

It's inspiring to see Black Flag looking like Vietnamese farmers with big beards and those kind of Vietnamese farming hats showing up at a Mohawk-mania club in England and being spat at because they don't sound or look like Exploited; they sound more like Black Sabbath than Black Flag. I love that.

I think that's what propelled our band, the fact that we put on something that was visibly attractive to people and then maybe the music comes later. I don't know what it is that people really like about us but that's part of the equation.

Mars Volta was always about embracing what 'too much' was and the excess of it. I never thought there would be an audience for it.