“I know that being upset without having an avenue to fix anything is a real hard place to be in for too long. But it’s even worse thinking that it’ll go away if you just ignore it.”

My father was a psychiatrist and a social worker but he was a very talented painter and musician and writer on the side.

I like the model of people getting together to make something when they want to do it and not being dictated to by a cycle.

I want to be around these positive, expressive people who are doing something different and who also want to get the hell out of there and don’t want to be around basic human bullshit.

Painting and animation can be kind of long work. Music was more immediate and more fun.

The cynicism doesn’t come across in the final; it can be taken as a very sincere plea for someone to not go away.

There was something in me, even leaving fifth grade, that hit me and said, “I have to get out of here. I don’t know where, and I don’t know what else I can do but I’m really not going to end up like any of these people.”

Ten years is a pretty good run for anything.

I’ve had terrible, terrible, terrible shows where I just thought, “That was off-key” or I forgot lines or I thought I looked like an idiot, and then you’re leaving and talking to people, and they’re like, “I had the best time of my life! That was amazing!” You just never know.

There are people who kind of let you know that you can silence the room.

I was living in a loft with Dave Sitek – this loft full of people just working on their stuff. Some were painting, some were writing. Any plans you had were kind of like a plan for the next two months.

You have to be a really talented writer if you’re trying to encapsulate a news story with a song and have it live after the event. I don’t have the focus to do that, really.

A lot of people have reunion things, but I think bands are supposed to break up.

I feel like now if you’re going to start a band you have to have an Instagram full of yourself looking a certain way, lined up like five dudes in mugshot alley, hanging out by the bridge or up against the wall, or “We’re in a library for some reason!”

There are a lot of spikes that can happen when what you’re doing starts to get attention or people start to talk about it. They can just kind of really do a number on your reasons for making music.

You turn into this desperate dude looking for a shred of attention when you just had so much. It’s like, “I’m just lonely and all I really want is a hug, but I gotta capture that in something real gross.” You start to understand why circus clowns are alcoholics.

No one wanted a job. No one could hold a job. You tend to see those going hand in hand.

If the Fleeting World is but a long dream, it does not matter whether one is young or old.

The chances are perhaps more in favour of ruin than of success. But, whatever may be the chances, I shall go on as long as any means of carrying on the fight are at my disposal.

That’s the advantage of insomnia. People who go to be early always complain that the night is too short, but for those of us who stay up all night, it can feel as long as a lifetime. You get a lot done

We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry.

Long before many of us were even conscious of our own degradation, these men [Marcus Garvey and W. E. B. DuBois] fought for African national and racial equality.

A fellow ought to save a few of the long evenings he spends with his girl till after they’re married.

The press of Italy is free, freer than the press of any other country, so long as it supports the regime.

So long as we have held fast to voluntary principles and have been actuated and inspired by the spirit of service.