Quotes About Artistry

That's one of my pet peeves. People always want to put something into a category - this one or that one. You know, a great song is a great song.

Other than Peter Jackson doing 'Lord of the Rings,' I don't get it when filmmakers follow up a movie with a sequel to the same movie. God bless 'em if they can be up for it, but that would drive me insane.

Oh yeah, I love Peter Gabriel's stuff. I mean, I even have the Genesis records. He's incredible.

Obviously I don't play the same way as Peter, but I could do a passable imitation of Peter Green; if you gave me a guitar I could sit here and probably get closer than anybody else.

I was petrified about 'I'm in You.' I couldn't wait to get it done to know whether it was good or not.

People ask me how I sang the role of the 'Phantom' 1,700 times. And I say that it's down to good material. If it did not have good material, I would have had a major problem doing it for that length of time.

Nothing will ever be as big as 'The Phantom of the Opera' for me.

Fantastic Negrito is a persona, an incarnation in my third phase.

A lot of the songs that I wrote during 'Pt. 1' and 'Pt. 2' are the first songs that I ever wrote that sounded like that. I was in this phase - a certain creative space in my life - personally and musically.

There was a phase when I and people around me listened to Prince a lot. A lot. We took Prince fandom to the extreme.

Not to compare an actor to a painter, but you can go through different phases and still be the same artist, y'know?

I'm just writing less of my own music lately - I go in and out of phases a lot. Sometimes there are these accidents that just sort of happen, that are kind of waiting around the corner. I guess Modest Mouse was one of them.

One thing I love about Lady Gaga is I feel like her sound is always evolving and changing with her and her phases of life.

My favorite artists are able to take things to the edge or just over the edge. Miles Davis and Duane Allman, for example. It's about not playing too many notes. Those guys had lots of phases to their careers, but they always played with economy and intelligence.

There are certain people who have become better artists, but they're brilliant at marketing. I think someone who's been phenomenal like that is Madonna.

Chickenfoot is phenomenal. I can't believe the music we're making.

I mean everyone, from Al Pacino to Murphy Guyer, are phenomenal actors.

Jerry Orbach is just phenomenal. He is genius, so present.

When fans of mine meet me, I can see the disappointment in their eyes. Every artist knows of this phenomenon.

I think that Phil Kaufman is one of the best directors that I have come across.

Sam Rockwell is an occupational hero for me, the same way that Phil Hoffman or Peter Sarsgaard or Michael Shannon are.

Philip Seymour Hoffman - I just think he's incredible.

When Phish broke up, I made some comment about how I'm not gonna go around playing 'You Enjoy Myself' for the rest of my life.

Phish is such a good band; they just make stuff up as a jam band.