… And these childrenthat you spit onas they try to change their worldsare immune to your consultations.They’re quite awareof what they’re going through…
What is the quality you most like in a man? The ability to return books.
People are so fucking dumb. Nobody reads anymore, nobody goes out and looks and explores the society and culture they were brought up in. People have attention spans of five seconds and as much depth as a glass of water.
Written in pain, written in aweBy a puzzled man who questionedWhat we were here for
I think I saw you in an ice-cream parlourdrinking milk shakes cold and longSmiling and waving and looking so finedon’t think you knew you were in this song
Everywhere I looked, demons of the future [were] on the battlegrounds of one’s emotional plane.
Once you lose that sense of wonder at being alive, you’re pretty much on the way out…
I always had a repulsive need to be something more than human. I felt very puny as a human. I thought, ‘Fuck that. I want to be a superhuman.
Cause I’d rather stay hereWith all the madmenThan perish with the sadmen roaming freeAnd I’d rather play hereWith all the madmenFor I’m quite content they’re all as saneAs me
Sometimes I don’t feel as if I’m a person at all. I’m just a collection of other people’s ideas.
If I could control tomorrow’s haze,The darkened shore wouldn’t bother me,If I can’t control the web we weave,My life will be lost in the fallen leaves…
And you,You can be meanAnd I,I’ll drink all the time’Cause we’re lovers,And that is a factYes we’re lovers,And that is that
What I like to do is try to make a difference with the work I do.
All my big mistakes are when I try to second-guess or please an audience. My work is always stronger when I get very selfish about it.
Fame can take interesting men and thrust mediocrity upon them.
On the other hand, what I like my music to do to me is awaken the ghosts inside of me. Not the demons, you understand, but the ghosts.
I had to resign myself, many years ago, that I’m not too articulate when it comes to explaining how I feel about things. But my music does it for me, it really does.
I’m in awe of the universe, but I don’t necessarily believe there’s an intelligence or agent behind it. I do have a passion for the visual in religious rituals, though, even though they may be completely empty and bereft of substance.
Everything I read about hitting a midlife crisis was true. I had such a struggle letting go of youthful things and learning how to exist and have enthusiasm while settling into the comfort of an older age.
The truth is of course is that there is no journey. We are arriving and departing all at the same time.
Fame itself… doesn’t really afford you anything more than a good seat in a restaurant.
It is amazing how a new child can refocus one’s direction seconds after its birth.
I realized the other day that I’ve lived in New York longer than I’ve lived anywhere else. It’s amazing: I am a New Yorker. It’s strange I never thought I would be.
It’s amazing: I am a New Yorker. It’s strange I never thought I would be.
I’m not one of those guys that has a great worldview. I kind of deal with terror and fear and isolation and abandonment.
When it comes down to it, glam rock was all very amusing. At the time, it was funny, then a few years later it became sort of serious-looking and a bit foreboding.
Songs don’t have to be about going out on Saturday night and having a good rink-up and driving home and crashing cars. A lot of what I’ve done is about alienation… about where you fit in society.
When I was 18, I thought that, to be a romantic, you couldn’t live past 30.
Anxiety and spiritual searching have been consistent themes with me, and that figures into my worldview. But I tend to make my songs sound like relationship songs.
I feel confident imposing change on myself. It’s a lot more fun progressing than looking back. That’s why I need to throw curve balls.
I find only freedom in the realms of eccentricity.