Quotes

Inspiration may be a form of super-consciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness I wouldn't know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self-consciousness.

You compose because you want to somehow summarize in some permanent form your most basic feelings about being alive, to set down... some sort of permanent statement about the way it feels to live now, today.

The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, 'Is there a meaning to music?' My answer would be, 'Yes.' And 'Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?' My answer to that would be, 'No.'

Your connections to all the things around you literally define who you are.

We talk about quantum weirdness and things being in two places at once, but it all involves atoms and molecules, stuff we don't normally interact with.

Scientists and academics in particular focus on detail and the minutiae. When they talk to each other, they usually don't focus on the broad ideas; they don't focus on social interconnectedness. They focus on the task that they're doing.

If you go into any physics lab, everybody is depressed and feels isolated. We don't get any feedback that anybody cares about what we're doing.

If I realize that actually there's quantum mechanics happening around us all the time in some macroscopic, interconnected way, then that doesn't change my perception of it, that doesn't change my interaction with it; it just changes how I view my interaction.

The qubit acts as a bridge between the microscopic and the macroscopic worlds.

For whatever reason, you gravitate to certain subjects, and I read a lot of history.

There are some things that you see that are hard to talk about. You can't talk about it. You just bear witness to them.

The National guys will tell you the same thing - I tend to work until the last possible minute.

I guess I like minor chords better than major ones, in general.

I do have a way of playing piano where it's very melodic and emotional, but then often it's great if whoever's singing doesn't sing exactly what's in the piano melody, but maybe it's connected in some way.

I grew up fly fishing when I was a kid. The feeling of it is fun. I went fly-fishing on Lake Delaware once, and I caught a record brook trout.

Seven' is this kind of nostalgic, emotional folk song.

When you're working with someone new, it takes a second to understand their instincts and range. It's not really conscious.

I had been living with my family in France as COVID was starting to spiral out of control in Europe. I said to my wife that maybe they should come back to the States with me because I was worried about getting separated.

I tried hard not to think about the scope or scale of making a record that would be heard by millions and millions of people. I did a pretty good job of tuning that out.

Music for me is an emotional necessity. It's therapy. It's what I live and breathe.

Sometimes you become the person people try to pin you into a corner to be, which is not really fair.

Whenever I write anything, I do sing to it, to try and make sure it's interesting or compelling to sing to. I've gotten in the habit of sharing that with other, more charismatic vocalists.

One of the negative sides of a really intense arc as a touring band is there are big gaps in your memory because you're so exhausted.

White people need to wake up and tell the truth about US history and the inequality and the ways in which racism is so entrenched.

Anyone who's speaking up about anything becomes a target.