We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.
Raucous drunken trumpets and instrumentation tend to guide the way you think. They can give you a path to follow lyrically.
I think that there's a proliferation of music that is done entirely in the bedroom for an Internet audience, but there's no way in hell that you could actually kill off a live show, and its importance in the creation of music - it's just impossible.
I just reached the point where I realised, I need to stop repeating myself if I'm ever actually going to enjoy the music I'm creating.
I think it's become much harder because I'm more afraid of every step I take. I'm more aware of its ramifications, I'm more aware of the less creative aspects of music - like the business-side of things for example.
I became very aware of what I was used to relying on, almost tricks. It's funny because I could feel myself creating a formula and sticking with it and I just told myself, 'That's not me, that's not really how I am, god forbid I have developed a formula - it's music; songwriting. ' It's heretic, honestly, in the church of music, so I had to unwind a few tricks in order to get past it.
I put myself in the studio and I really made sure to say, 'Well, if I would normally reach for a trumpet, why don't I reach for the next nearest instrument instead?'
I don't know why, but for some reason I seem to be more popular now than when I was playing.
In the last analysis, human security means a child who did not die, a disease that did not spread, an ethnic tension that did not explode, a dissident who was not silenced, a human spirit that was not crushed.
What constitutes the authentic human being?
The painter must always seek the essence of things, always represent the essential characteristics and emotions of the person he is painting.