Quotes from Michael Gira

The music takes you. It has to be alive. It's like you hammer something, and the way it happens to bleed leads you into new directions.

I'm the band leader. That's not to say that the other people are my minions - they all put in a tremendous amount of personality, and push the music in ways I would never expect.

Maybe in the future I'll put out someone's one-off project, but generally I don't have time.

Making those CDs, signing them, numbering them, packing them. It takes hundreds of hours, but it's worth it because I'm able to do the thing I love.

Playing an old record doesn't interest me at all. It's exactly the opposite of what I want to do.

You make your work and you can't ask for approval when you're doing it. Otherwise, it's going to be untruthful in some way.

I have my own record company. I have to answer to God, basically. I'm not young, so I want to make the best possible work I can before I exit.

The goal is ecstasy, but I don't want to make some sort of saccharine pop music. I want to make something that's completely uncompromising: the best possible music ever made.