Quotes About Music

I've had a couple of guys that I've had co-produce records with me through my career, and it's fun to work with a co-producer.

I really want to work with Rufus Wainwright. Michael Stipe from R.E.M. I would love to work with Kanye West.

I like to work on records when I feel inspired, not because it's expected of me.

When you sing a song the way I sing it, you have to use your whole body. It's almost like working out.

After the Soft Boys I just didn't want to work with any more guitarists.

Carrying 200 pounds of velvet and satin around a stage for 90 minutes - that's man's work, let me tell you.

When it came to using elements of your personal life in your work, my mother was the master, or the mistress. There were three or four songs she wrote about my father - songs about failed love.

There definitely isn't a structure anymore to how I get ideas. A lot of times I'll just write down a phrase, or I'll have an idea that's attached to just a few chords. Other times, it's work.

I'm a songwriter. I've got ideas in the closet that just didn't work out with my band, that I think, "This is a great idea, it's just the wrong guys."

I rely on music heavily, just in life and in my work.

My criticism hasn't necessarily been informed by the critics I've read. The conversations I've had with friends and fellow musicians have shaped my thinking more than the work of any critic.

It all starts from the lyric with me. If I work really hard on the lyric and get it right, then it will tell me whatever else to do, where to go.

Growing up, I fantasized about being a rock musician and that somehow it would be really easy. I didn't realize that it's so much work.

It was hard to work and work and work and not get your music played on the radio.

Bjork is one of my oldest friends so we share the friendship and common roots. That is what we build on when we work together.

I realize that I really have to make music work for me as a career because I can't do anything else.

I work to loud music - hard-rock stuff like AC/DC, Guns 'n Roses, and Metallica have always been particular favorites - but for me the music is just another way of shutting the door.

We also worked with Marshall Jefferson for Groovy, Laidback and Nasty. So we were lucky to work with some really great people.

When I listen to my work, I think, what's so inflammatory about it? It's not really that dissonant. A lot of people who used to hate my stuff have come round to it.

So many good songs get written fast, because you know exactly what has to work.

For me, the singer is actually the most important element. When I work with someone, it all comes down to whether I like the singer or not.

I tend to work in layers. There's a huge orchestra in the film, but I also record a lot things with very intimate groups, and I like to be able to use the textures of those intimate groups.

I think the feeling that we're going to work together again usually starts to come up before the first project's even done. The Black Keys and I have already talked about starting on something new.

I wait till the last minute to do lyrics. I seem to work best that way - bummed out and under pressure. I often don't do my homework. But I'll always walk that extra mile.