Quotes from Andrew Bird

All the folks I play with come from jazz backgrounds or at least appreciate spontaneity within the parameters of a pop song.

I mean, you still can't jump offstage and go read a book. But I'm getting better at it. It is something you can manage. You can still give everything you have to the audience onstage, and have something for yourself.

The way I work, I'm not a confessional singer-songwriter.

Every time I make a record, it's kind of like scarification or something. You work 15 hours until you're stupid. You're just kind of all jittery.

Melodies are just honest. They can only be what they are. Words have the capacity for deception. They're all full of subtext, and some of them are cliche and overused and vernacular. They're tricky. All I can say is, words are tricky.

Guitars are kind of just, you know, sexy, especially old vintage ones.

Well, my main instrument is violin, but I think of myself as a songwriter who happens to play violin.

I think when I was pretty young I got really into the tone of my instrument and I remember just playing one note for an hour to just kind of feel the resonance of the violin.

Since I first picked up the violin, I've been very interested in tone and texture: I would have very visceral reactions to the texture of a snare drum or a pedal steel guitar or a violin.