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Basically We Should Stop Doing Those Things That Are Destructive To The Environment, Other Creatures, And Ourselves And Figure Out New Ways Of Existing.

-Moby

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Basically We Should Stop

Moby

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Basically We Should Stop Doing Those Things That Are Destructive To The Environment, Other Creatures, And Ourselves And Figure Out New Ways Of Existing.

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I Spent So Much Of My Life Reading About Spirituality And Reading About Neuroscience And Trying Different Meditation Practices. It's A Really Big Part Of My Life. But It's Sometimes Hard To Talk About. There Are So Many People In The World Who Don't Live In Southern California And Don't Spend Their Time Meditating.

One Can Only Snort So Many Ants And Have So Much Sex Before One Starts To Long For The Comfort And Companionship Of A Good Book.

I May Be A Lifelong 'downtowner,' But Central Park Really Is The Most Amazing And The Most Beautiful Part Of New York City.

How Wondrous Familiar Is A Fool!

I Walk Out My Front Door In New York And I'm Out On The Street And There Are People Everywhere. L.a. Is So Much More Spread Out, So It's Really Easy In L.a. To Have A Little More Isolation And To Just Not See As Many People.

For Better Or Worse, I'm Interested In Just About Everything: Every Different Type Of Music I Can Imagine. I Can Never See A Reason To Choose Just One Type Of Music At The Exclusion Of Everything Else. Different Types Of Music Are Capable Of Being Rewarding In Different Kinds Of Ways.

There's No Wrong Way To Meditate. And Meditation Should Never Be A Difficult Practice That Leads To Self Criticism.

If There Is True Evil In The World - It Is Republican Conservatives.

In 1992 I Was Doing One Of My First Ever Tours And I Was In Heathrow Airport And I Saw These Middle-aged Musicians Who Had Clearly Been On Tour For Decades, And They All Looked Haggard And Unhappy And Unhealthy. I Vowed To Myself That I Would Never Be That Person. Flash Forward 20 Years And I Found Myself In Heathrow Looking Haggard And Unhappy And Unhealthy. I Decided I Would Rather Spend My Time Staying Home Working On Music And Making Dinner With Friends, Instead Of Spending Six Months In A Hotel In A State Of Depressing Suspended Adolescence.

I Have Nothing Against Bombastic Music, But When It Comes To Making Albums, I'd Prefer To Make Music That Has A Sort Of Vulnerable Subtlety To It.

I Can Spend Years Studying And Being In Therapy And Having A Very Analytic Spiritual Meditation Practice, But Without The Emotional Component, Without The Softening That Comes With Love And Vulnerability, Everything Else I Do Is Really Just Surface.

Meditation Practice

As A New Yorker You Can't Help But Be Proud Of The Fact That So Much Music And Culture Started Here. Punk Rock, Jazz, Hip-hop And House Music Started Here, George Gershwin Debuted 'rhapsody In Blue' Here; The Velvet Underground Are From New York.

There Are A Lot Of Musicians Who Are Still Desperately Trying To Pretend That It's 1998 And By Having A Huge Marketing Campaign, They Somehow Believe That They Can Sell 10 Million Records. That's Delusional. No One Sells 10 Million Records. The Days Of Musicians Getting Rich Off Of Selling Records Are Done.

I Stopped Drinking And Realised New York Still Has A Lot Of Charm, But It Has Become So Bourgeois And Affluent - And I Can't Really Complain Because I'm Sort Of Bourgeois And Affluent Myself, But I Like Living In A Place Where Artists And Musicians And Writers Can Actually Pay The Rent.

Unfortunately I'm Still Straight. But Who Knows, Life Is Complicated And Maybe I'll Wake Up Gay Tomorrow! Here's Hoping. And Congratulations To Everyone Who Lives In A Place Where They Can Marry The Person They Love, Regardless Of Gender!

Congratulations

I Met Elton John At An Interview Dinner, And We Just Sort Of Became Friends. He's Got Such A Wicked Sense Of Humor.

No One Drives In Manhattan - In Fact, Many Of The Folks Who Live In Manhattan Don't Even Have Driving Licenses!

I Need An Audience Way More Than An Audience Needs Me.

To Quote Homer Simpson, Alcohol Is The Cause And Solution To All Of Life's Problems. I Don't Think There's Anything Wrong With Drinking And Drug Use, If People Can Do It And Not Hurt Themselves. But It Got To The Point Where I Was Really Hurting Myself.

I Guess...on One Hand, I Spent Way Too Much Time Watching Science Fiction And Reading Science Fiction When I Was Growing Up. But A Part Of It Is I Also Never Felt Much Of A Connection To The World In Which I Lived While I Was Growing Up, And So, Oddly Enough, I Think I Felt A Lot More Connected To The Worlds That I Read About In Science Fiction.

One Simple Word: Ugh. Is Something Still Considered A Conspiracy If It's Played Out Right Under Our Noses?

Over Time, I Started Becoming More And More Aware Of The Vastness And Complexity Of The Universe, Which Led Me Away From Any Sort Of Conventional Christianity.

Now Small Fowls Flew Screaming Over The Yet Yawning Gulf; A Sullen White Surf Beat Against Its Steep Sides; Then All Collapsed; And The Great Shroud Of The Sea Rolled On As It Rolled Five Thousand Years Ago.

I Just Have To Remind Myself That My Daily Quotidie In Life Has Almost Nothing To Do With Any Aspect Of My Professional Life As A Public Figure. And I Think A Lot Of People Get To That Point - Specifically, Sort Of Getting Comfortable Looking Out For Yourself And Taking Care Of Yourself And Defining Yourself Based On Healthier Criteria, And Not Criteria That's Established By Complete Strangers That You've Never Met.

Being A Vegan Is Pretty Easy These Days, As Almost Every Town And City Has Health Food Stores And Vegetarian-friendly Restaurants.

Every Single Day The World Seems Like It Is On The Brink Of Falling Apart. But Then I Look Outside My Window, And Things Look About The Same As They Did A Week Ago. It's Almost A Form Of Cognitive Dissonance.

'arbitrary' And 'odd' Are The Words Which Best Describe The Pattern Of My Career. I'm Perpetually Baffled By The Whole Thing.

My Interest In Gospel Music And Liturgical Art And Biblically-inspired Literature Has Nothing To Do With Organised Religion And Everything To Do With Human Beings Trying To Figure Out Their Place On This Planet.

There's A Fairly Extensive Network Of Musicians On Tour Who Are All Trying To Stay Sober, And We Generally Reach Out To Each Other And Offer Support When And Where We Can.

For Me To Speak Out Against The War In Iraq, You Know - Most Of My Fans Are Lefties Anyway, So I Don't Really Get Much Flack For It.

My Goal With Everything That I Do Is To Present Things In A Way That I Would Want To See If I Was In The Audience Or Buying The Record.

I Would Drink And Drink And Then At 3 O'clock In The Morning Take Anything That Was Put In Front Of Me. And I'd Sometimes Be Disappointed When Conventional Things Were Put In Front Of Me. Like, I'd Do A Line Of Something And Be Disappointed To Find It Was Just Cocaine.

I Think There Are Two Types Of Photographers, Those Who Want To Document The World And Those Who Want To Create Their Own World. I Am More Interested In Documenting The World And Presenting It To People With The Question Attached, 'does This Make Any Sense To You?'

I See 'ahab's Wife' As Offering An Alternative Vision To

There Was A Time When I Was Way Too Reliant Upon Other People's Opinions And Perspective Of Me. And I Guess Over Time Came To See How Unhealthy That Was. I Mean It's Almost Like A Sign Of Mental Illness To Base Your Self-worth On The Opinions Of Complete Strangers.

When I Listen To Gospel Singers Pouring Their Heart Out To God, It's The Act Of Pouring Their Hearts Out That Interests Me.

I Feel Like Someone Who's Meditating Could Possibly Benefit Their Meditation Practice And Their Well-being Just By Sitting Down And Thinking About Things That They Love For Ten Minutes.

I Think The Most Exciting Thing Is Access To Information. People's Ability To Document Things And Expose Things That May Have Not Otherwise Been Documented And Exposed. All The Information You Want Is Available Instantly, Which Is Overwhelming, But I Think Can Have A Positive Change On The Political Process And Accountability For Leaders And Corporations.

I'm Like A Monk With A Taste For Hookers.

Whereas For Me, Touring Tends To Be A Very Strange And Isolating Experience.

It’s Perfectly Natural For Me To Sit Down And Talk About Meditating And Spiritual Practice With My Friends. But Then I Realize, How Would It Sound To A Drunk Cynical Guy In London?

I'm Offended By The Is-ought Fallacy, Which Has Been Used To Justify Slavery, Women Not Being Allowed To Vote, Children Working In Factories.

There Are So Many Musicians, Friends Of Mine, Who Play Shows For Ten People A Night, Or Always Desperately Wanted A Record Contract. So Even If Every Person On The Planet Loathes Me, I Have Nothing To Complain About. My Job Is Not A Bad Job, So I Can't Complain.

Personally I Find The Democratic Chaos Of The Internet Fascinating, And For The Most Part Really Benign.

One Of The Reasons Why Fundamentalists Are So Aggressive In Trying To Promote Fundamentalism Is Because Deep Down They Know It's Arbitrary. If You're Comfortable With Your Belief You Don't Need To Convince Other People To Agree With You.

I Remind Myself That The Universe Is 15 Billion Years Old, And I'm Only 46 Years Old, So My Perspective Is Sort Of Limited And Fear-based And Skewed. So I Sort Of Turn Things Over To Whatever You Want To Call It - Whether It's God, Or The Universe Or The Spirit Of The Universe - And I Just Sort Of Turn Things Over To God And Hope That This Spirit That Has Been Around For 15 Billion Years Will Have A Better Understanding Of How Things Should Be Than I Do.

But When A Man’s Religion Becomes Really Frantic; When It Is A Positive Torment To Him; And In Fine, Makes This Earth Of Ours An Uncomfortable Inn To Lodge In; Then I Think It High Time To Take That Individual Aside And Argue The Point With Him.

In An Odd Way, Donald Trump And Maybe Brexit Is Gonna Be Great For Inspiring A New Wave Of Socially Conscious Political Music.

I've Been Making Music For Thirty-six Years And, You Know, I'm Still Just As In Love With Working On Music Now As I Was Thirty-six Years Ago.

It Just Seems Like Musicians Want To Sell A Few Records And Put Out A Perfume Line, And I Think It's So Sad That There Are So Many Musicians Who Don't Want To Change The World.

Old People Go To The Polls Because They Can't Get Erections, Young People Stay Home, Do Drugs And Have Sex.

We Live In This Culture Where There Are So Many Things That Want Us To Pretend That We’re Not Truly Human. That We Can Be Exempt From The Human Condition, Either Through Intelligence Or Accomplishment Or Success Or Humor. Bu Biologically We’re All The Same. We All Get Sad, We All Get Happy, And We All Die. Anyone Who Pretends That That’s Not The Case Is Either A Sociopath Or Utterly Delusional.

The Way I Work On Music Is That I Go Into My Studio, And I Start Playing Music, And I See What Happens, And... I Never Think About It.

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You Know, If You Love Something, You Should Love It Regardless Of Whether It Costs Five Dollars Or 500 Or 5,000 Dollars. Unfortunately, That's Not The Way Our Culture Works, And We Do Collectively Buy Into This Idea That Things That Are More Expensive Probably Have More Value.

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I Love Thich Nhat Hahn. One Of My Favorite Quotes Of His (and I’m Paraphrasing), He’s Talking About Cultivating Happiness, And He Was Saying, At The Very Least, Just Be Happy You’re Not At The Dentist Right Now. He Was Talking To Someone Who Was Having A Really Hard Time Finding Joy.

I Just Want To Try - On A Daily Basis Keep Trying - To Make Music That I Really Love.

There Is A Long And Interesting Tradition Of Really Marginal Left-field Music That Becomes Commercially Successful. And I Will, For A Brief Minute, Fit Into That Tradition.

But At The Same Time, I Don't Let Myself Regret Things To The Point That I'm Paralyzed.

In The Long, Nonillustrious History Of White People Pilfering African American Culture, Have I Just Perpetrated That? I'm Motivated By A Love For The Music And By A Love Of The Performances, And I Really Hope I Haven't Done Anything Bad.

I'm Not Trying To Look For Pity Or Sympathy. I Was Just Surprised That So Many People In The World Of Entertainment Seemed To Be Okay With Misogyny And Homophobia As Long As They Were Profiting From It.

I Truly Believe, As An Institution, Most Major Labels Should Just Die.

I've Dated Some Very Enthusiastic, Attractive People And Some Very Unenthusiastic, Less Attractive People. I See No Correlation. But Female Friends Of Mine Who Have Dated Male Public Figures Have Found That Is The Case. They Say Male Models Are Terrible In Bed, Because They Feel Like Just Showing Up Is All The Effort They Need To Make.

A Few Years Ago, Before I Stopped Drinking, I Was Feeling Very Sorry For Myself And Very Drunk, And I Googled 'moby Sucks'. In Less Than One Second Something Like 20 Million Responses Came Up... Yeah, There Has Been A Lot Of Loathing Directed Towards Me, And It Used To Drive Me Crazy.

What Sounds Good On The Radio Is Really Loud Kick Drums And Loud Snare Drums, When Everything's Bombastic And In Your Face. It's The Equivalent Of A Houseguest Who Screams All The Time.

Everyone Feels Awkward, Everyone Feels Uncomfortable, Everyone Gets Older, Everyone Gets Lonely, Everyone Gets Sick, Everyone Eventually Dies. You’re At The Aspen Ideas Fest, And You Have These Really Smart, Really Accomplished People Who Pretend Like They’ve Somehow Figured Out A Way To Bypass The Human Condition. We Live In This Culture Where There Are So Many Things That Want Us To Pretend That We’re Not Truly Human.

I Think That Eminem Is Very Talented And Remarkably Bright, And I Actually Do Like A Lot Of His Music.

Let Peace And Beauty Reign.

You Can Sit Down With Reason Or Ableton And Literally In A Couple Of Hours Make A Very Good-sounding Record. But Then A Lot Of People Become Contented With That, Rather Than Pushing Themselves To Making Something That Sounds Great.

I Like The Humility That Comes From Being Hated. Hopefully Some Humility And Compassion Comes Out Of That.

A Lot Of People Do Talk About The Demise Of The Album, But I Still Believe That If An Artist Tries Hard To Make A Great Album, People Will Buy It And Listen To It As An Album, Rather Than Just A Collection Of Random Songs.

To Truly Live A Creative Life Means That You Will Need To Experiment In As Many Different Fields As Possible.

I Taught Bible Study, And There Was Period Where I Thought All Of My Beliefs Were Right, And Everybody Who Disagreed With Me Was Wrong.

One Problem With A Lot Of Musicians Is That They Remove Themselves In A Studio And Make A Record And Assume People Are Going To Pay Attention To It Just Because They've Made It.

It's Better To Sail With A Moody Good Captain Than A Laughing Bad One.

My Uncle Is From Argentina, So I Grew Up Hearing Spanish. My Spanish Isn't Very Good, But My Pronunciation Isn't Terrible.

I Was Raised With This Idea That We're Supposed To Be Tolerant Of Other People's Opinions, But Then What Happens If Other People's Opinions Are Racist And Hateful And Wrong?

It's Heartbreaking That So Many Hundreds Of Millions Of People Around The World Are Desperate For The Right To Vote, But Here In America People Stay Home On Election Day.

You Have Climate Change And Antibiotic Resistance Which Are Two Of The Biggest Horses Of The Apocalypse, And They're Basically Breathing On Our Necks, And There's No Political Will Or Effort Being Expended To Deal With Them.

There Is A Lot Of Music In The World That I Love That Does Not Always Get The Appropriate Exposure.

That Softness Around Your Eyes, A Softness In Your Face. Almost The Way You Feel When You’re About To Start Crying. That, To Me, Is Love. It Can Be Romantic Love, It Can Be Friendship Love, It Can Be Family Love, It Can Be Love For A Chipmunk. It Can Be Love For Anything.

I've Experienced Tons Of Failure. I've Been Making Music For 30 Years, And I'd Say Failure And Success Have Happened In Equal Measure.

Success And Failure

I Feel Like The Vast Majority Of The World's Problems Would Disappear If Suddenly Everyone On The Planet Were Relatively Self-aware And Capable Of Honest Self-love And Compassion.

I'm Not Catholic But The Virgin Mary Fascinates Me Because She's Like A Folk Hero.

The Most Emotional Part Is When I Go Into My Studio Every Day And Pretty Much Never Have An Idea Of What's Gonna Happen.

That’s Why I Make Music. When I Listen To My Favorite Music Made By Other People, That’s What It Does To Me. So As A Musician, I’m Just Trying To Do The Same Thing With Music I Make. Sometimes It Works, Sometimes It Doesn’t. But When Someone Comes To Me And Says The Music I’ve Made Has Affected Them Emotionally, That’s The Most Gratifying Part Of My Job.

This Isn't Like Naming Your Dog Spot.

These New Metal Bands Are Going Out, Getting Drunk And Going To Strip Clubs, And They'll Be Doing The Same In Thirty Years. There Isn't Even An Interesting Self-destructive Quality To It . . . It's Just Dumb.

We Do All, Myself Included, We Tend To Hold Ourselves To Pretty Low Standards. But When It Comes To Judging Public Figures Or Politicians Or People We've Never Met, We Tend To Hold People To Very High Standards, And, If We Held Ourselves To Those Standards, We'd Always Fall Short.

I Don't Think There's Anything Wrong With Not Knowing How To Play An Instrument, But The Rise Of The Non-musical Producer Has Done Away With Musicianship And Focused Attention Purely On The Song's Hook.

Keep Your Weather Eye Open, And Sing Out Every Time.

The Worst Case Scenario Is You Really Like Someone's Work, Then You Meet Them And They're A Self-involved, Entitled Douchebag.

Worst Case Scenario

I Guess The Most Emotional Part Is When I Have That Moment When I End Up Writing Something That I Really, Really Love. So Not Only Is There The Emotional Connection With The Music That's Being Created, But There's Also The Magic Of The Fact That You're Essentially Creating Something From Nothing.

Everyone Feels Awkward, Everyone Feels Uncomfortable, Everyone Gets Older, Everyone Gets Lonely, Everyone Gets Sick, Everyone Eventually Dies.

I'd Rather Be Around Broken People Who Have A Degree Of Humility, And Just Get On With Their Work.

Whether The Virgin Mary Existed, I Don't Know. But The Human Need For Her To Appear In Tortilla, That's What Inspires My Interest.

When I Was Growing Up, I Fetishised New York City. It Was The Land Of Lou Reed And The Velvet Underground, It Was Where Leonard Cohen Wrote 'chelsea Hotel', It Was Cbgbs And All The Punk Rock Clubs. Artists And Musicians Lived There, And It Was Cheap And Dangerous.

I Think The Ideal Job In That Alternative Universe Would Be To Lead Whitewater Rafting Trips Through The Grand Canyon. So Maybe I'd Be A Guy Leading Whitewater Rafting Trips At The Grand Canyon. Or Maybe A Professional Skydiver.

I'm Just Fascinated With The World That I Can See, But I'm Even More Fascinated With The World That I Can't See.

I Don't Think I'm A Particularly Good Writer, And I'm Not Terribly Insightful.

As An American, No One Expected Donald Trump To Ever Be A Serious Candidate For President. I Don't Think He Even Expected To Be A Serious Candidate. He Wanted The Free Media He Would Get.

God Has Taken His Chosen People, The Problem Being You Are The Only Non-chosen Person.

I'm Actually Cautiously Optimistic That Donald Trump Will Be So Bad That He Will Force America To Wake Up And Realise That Forcing America To Vote For Right Wing Republicans Is Always A Terrible Idea. It's Never Been A Good Idea, But What Happened Here Is You Have A President Like Obama Who Gives You Eight Years Of Relative Stability And Prosperity, And People Forget That Republicans Are Just Terrible, Not Just For The Country But For The Planet. Maybe This Is America's Equivalent Of Bottoming Out, Like A Crystal Meth Addict Going On One Last Big Run Before They Have To Get Sober.

I'm Not Sure How Healthy It Is To Shoot Police Helicopters With Bazookas.

Music Is Just Air Moving Around.

I've Made Records That Everyone Has Hated And I've Loved, And Made Records That Everyone Has Loved And I've Deemed, At Best, Mediocre.

My Goal Is To Make One-not A Hodgepodge, But Just The Sort Of Record That I Would Want To Listen To.

Because I've Been That Drunk Person In The Club So Many Thousands Of Times, When I'm In An Environment Where People Are Drunk Or On Drugs, I Certainly Don't Judge Them. Because It's Almost A Given That For Much Of My Life I've Been Way More Messed Up Than Them.

For Me My Biggest Inspiration Is Trying To Make Music That Effects Me As Much As The Music Made By My Heroes.

I Think That The Current Climate Enables A Lot Of Musicians To Do Relatively Well. Twenty-five Years Ago, You Could Be A Bass Player In A Folk-rock Band And Do Pretty Well - That Sort Of Means That You're Going To Have To Go Get A Day Job. But A Lot Of My Friends Have Learned How To Write Classical Music For Movies And Produce Other People And Do Remixes, And Dj And Go On Tour, And Do All These Different Things. The More Diverse Their Approach, The Better Their Chances Of Actually Having A Career.

If I Found Myself Married With Children And Had Tons Of Puppies And A Fun Place To Live, I Imagine I'd Be Happier, But I Kind Of Like Being A Little Bit Isolated And Lonely.

I Change My Mind About Things - For A While I Was Punk Rocker, And If You Weren't A Punk Rocker You Were An Apostate. Then I Was A Dance Music Enthusiast, And If You Weren't A Dance Music Enthusiast, You Were An Apostate. I Was Carnivore, And If You Were A Vegan, I Didn't Want To Talk To You. Then I Was Vegan, And If You Were A Carnivore I Didn't Want To Talk To You.

One Of The Central Flaws In The State Of Contemporary Music Is That The Major Record Companies Have Failed To Incorporate That Simple Fact Into Their Business Plans. They've Come Into An Industry That's Based On Idiosyncratic Artists And Tried To Erase Every Idiosyncratic Aspect Out Of It.

I Love To Be Busy. I'm Envious Of People Who Are Able To Take Their Spare Time And Relax. All I Like To Do Is Work. Perhaps It's Lingering Calvinist Guilt?

I Live In New York And I Love Hanging Out In Gay Clubs, And A Lot Of My Friends Are Gay. But, For Better Or For Worse, I'm Not Gay.

Research Performed On Animals Is, By Definition, Scientifically Unsound.

The Solution Probably Doesn't Look Like The Problem. If We Have This Propensity To Worry, To Be Anxious, To Be Depressed, To Be Angry - Focusing On The Worry, Anxiety, Depression, And Anger? Probably Not Gonna Be The Solution.

When I Saw Music As A Means To An End - More Fame, More Money, Dating Celebrities - That's When Things Have Gone Terribly Wrong. Now My Life Is Focused On Just Trying To Keep Making Music. Because When It's Really Good, It's Just The Most Remarkable Feeling On The Planet.

I Still Never Get Recognized. Small, Bald White Guys Like Myself - We All Kind Of Look The Same.

Up Until The Rise Of Electronic Music, If You Were A Musician In Portugal Or Germany Or Italy Or Japan, And You Didn't Sing In English, You Really Were Limited: You Could Be Successful In The Country Where People Understood Your Language. The World Of Electronic Music Is Completely International. You Have Djs From Finland Making Huge Records For People In New Zealand, Djs In South Korea Making Huge Records For People In France. By The Fact That It Doesn't Cost Anything To Make, And That It Transcends Language, Nation It Accidentally Accomplishes A Lot Of Really Remarkable Things.

There's An Aesthetic Theme, Which Is Cities At Two O'clock In The Morning. Not Cities Packed With People Going Out To Clubs And Dancing But Desolate, Empty Streets. It's Off-putting But There's A Strange Comfort To It As Well, That Desolate Urban Environment.

When I Do Have Time To Work On Music, I'm Kind Of Selfish, And Would Rather Work On My Own Stuff Than Someone Else's.

I Like Noise. It's Always Puzzled Me Why One Of The Goals Of Contemporary Recording Is To Get Rid Of Noise And To Eliminate Any Element Of A Performance.

It's A Very Strange Phenomenon Being Hated By People You've Never Met. Some Journalists Just Seem To Hate Me And Everything I Do, And It's Disconcerting Because I've Never Met This Person.

This Whole World Is Run By Brutes For The Common And The Stupid.

If You And I Become Vegans, The Global Consequences Aren't Going To Be That Much. But If We Can Get A Few Hundred Million People To Become A Little More Aware And Cut Back On Their Animal Consumption, The Consequences Will Be Great.

Success Usually Breeds A Degree Of Hubris.

By Being Vulnerable, Either With Yourself Or In The Presence Of Another Person, That’s Where All Growth And Ultimate Well-being Comes From.

I Think We’re Like Farm Animals Before An Earthquake.

I Learned In The Last Few Years That It's Really Unhappy And Really Unsustainable To Try And Base Your Well Being On Something As Arbitrary As Record Sale And Critical Acclaim And The Interests Of The Public. All Of Those Things Are So Fickle. So My Approach Now To Music Is I Want To Make Records That I Love, And I Hope That Other People Love Them, Then That's Ok.

I Feel Like Sometimes We Have To Be A Little Less Inclusive And Tolerant If Other People's Opinions Could Lead To The Destruction Of Our Species.

The Main Thing That Excites Me And Makes Me Want To Get Out Of Bed Is The Thought Of Being Able To Go Into My Studio To Work On Music.

What Fascinates Me About Addiction And Obsessive Behavior Is That People Would Choose An Altered State Of Consciousness That's Toxic And Ostensibly Destroys Most Aspects Of Your Normal Life, Because For A Brief Moment You Feel Okay.

A Lot Of My Friends Who Grew Up In Manhattan Have A Strange Phobia About Brooklyn. It's Big And Scary And They Get Lost.

Growing Up In Connecticut, All The Colonial Houses Looked Alike. In Los Angeles, The Diversity Is So Extreme, It's Baffling.

I Love The Idea Of Making Records That People Can Use, Records That Have A Sense Of Utility.

The Reason I Didn't Like Cocaine Is It Made Me Do Stupid Things, Have Stupid Conversations, And Stay Awake Until 11 O'clock In The Morning Unable To Think, Read, Sleep Or Speak.

Many Of My Friends Back In New York And Elsewhere Have A Glib Or Dismissive Attitude Toward Los Angeles. It's A Place Of Strip Malls And Traffic And Not Much Else, In Their Opinion.

An Artist In 2014 Who Is Thinking About Album Sales Is Either Sadly Deluded Or Has To Make So Many Commercial Compromises That It Sort Of Takes The Joy Out Of Making Music.

I'm Envious Of People Who Can Sleep As Long As They Want. I Have The Circadian Rhythm Of A Farmer.

Music Can Always Serve A Role In People's Lives When It's Emotional And Warm And Inviting And Beautiful.

I Love It When Celebrities Fall Apart, You Want Them To Fall Apart Like Charlie Sheen.

As People Continue To Do More And Buy More Over The Internet, Continue To Meet People Over The Internet, Connection Speeds Are Going To Get Faster, And The Internet Is Just Going To Become An Even More Integral Part Of People's Lives.

I’ve Never Seen The Need To Choose One Type Of Music At The Exclusion Of Another. That Would Feel Kind Of Sad And Arbitrary.

Because We Find Somethings Distasteful Is Not Justification Enough For Us To Deem Them Criminal.

People Don't Truly Respond To Something Until They See The Direct Consequences.

I Always Just Made Music That Resonates With Me Emotionally.

The Idea Of Feeling Old Is Much More The Worry Of A Slightly Younger Person. When You Are Getting Old, That Becomes - Psssh - Completely Secondary To The Absolute Understanding Of How Short Your Life Is.

There Is Nothing Terribly Wrong With My Face, Even If Some Of Its Parts Aren't Very Inspiring.

Nothing Can Stop Us Now 'cause We Are All Made Of Stars.

Without David Bowie, Popular Music As We Know It Pretty Much Wouldn't Exist.

When Playing Big Festivals, I Tend To Play Big, Over The Top Techno Tracks, Like Hands In The Air Songs That Make Sense Being Played In Front Of 30,000 People. I Steer Away From Subtlety In The Interests Of Big Bombastic Dance Music.

Mainly I'm A Vegan Because I Like Animals, And I Don't Want To Be Involved In Their Suffering. Also, It's Better For My Health And For The Environment.

There's Nothing In The Actual Bible That Limits A Christian In Their Appreciation Of Or Interest In Science. Anti-science Is Purely A Function Of Ignorant Fundamentalism.

I'm A Weird, Bald Musician Who Makes Records In His Bedroom And Lives In The Lower East Side.

A Lot Of Times Good, Pristine Recordings Prevent The Listener From Getting Emotionally Involved In The Music.

It's Enshrined In Our Constitution That An Individual Has A Right To Release Information And Disseminate Information That Makes The Powers That Be Uncomfortable.

If I Was A Sex Symbol, I Would Be Getting Laid A Lot More Than I Am Now.

When 'play' First Came Out, Journalists Didn't Review It; It Didn't Get Radio Play. And Then It Became This Big Successful Record And, I Hate To Admit This, I Found Myself Liking The Fame. I Bought Into It.

But On A Utilitarian Level, I Realize That To Try To Accomplish The Greatest Good For The Greatest Number Of People, Sometimes We Have To Become Salesmen For What We Believe, And Part Of Being A Salesman Is Being Effective.

There Are Viable (and Usually Better) Alternatives To The Use Of Animals For Food, Sport, Clothing, & Experimentation. I Beg You To Discontinue Any Actions That Might Cause Or Condone Animal Torture, Abuse, Or Destruction.

Here Was Long Period On My Life When I Was Very Disappointed By The Fact I Wasn't Gay. Because I Grew Up Going To Gay Clubs, Living In New York And La, Both Very Gay Cities.

The Aggressive, Energised, Political, Or Even Politicised, Culturally Aware Music Hasn't Really Existed [recently].

When I Dj At Big Venues I Try To Play Tracks That I Would Want To Hear If I Were E'd Up In A Field With 50,000 Other People.

How Do I Transform Pain. I Guess The Number One Way In Which I Do That Is By Working On Music, But Also It Can Be Anything From Just Talking About It With Other People Or Doing Kickboxing Or Meditating Or Running Around With Dogs. Or Just Simply Trying To Sit With It And Be Mindful And Be Aware Of It.

It Seems So Antithetical To The Teachings Of Christ To Proclaim Your Faith In Public. I Mean, Of Course You're Not Supposed To Hide Your Light Under A Bushel.

I Don't Want To Get Too Nuanced, But We Have The Electoral College In The United States And That Means We Don't Have Direct Democracy.

There's Really No Reason For Any Musician, Writer, Actor To Ever Take Themselves Seriously. If You Work In A Needle Exchange, Take Yourself Seriously. You're Doing Good Work. If You're Involved In Hostage Negotiations And Saving Lives, You Can Have A Sense Of Entitlement.

The Term 'renaissance Man' Is Always Bandied About. I Don't Think That Applies To Me. You Think About Leonardo Da Vinci, And He Was A Painter And A Physicist And An Architect, And That Is A True Renaissance Man.

If The Entire World Decided To Become Vegan Tomorrow, A Whole Host Of The World's Problems Would Disappear Overnight. Climate Change Would Decrease By 25 Percent, Deforestation Would Cease, Rainforests Would Be Preserved, Our Water- And Air-quality Would Increase, Life-expectancy Rates Would Increase, And Our Rates Of Cancer Would Plummet, So Certainly, With That One Action Of Becoming Vegan You Are Quite Effectively Making The World A Better Place.

There's Something About The Human Brain, That It Actually Has A Predilection Towards Negativity, Which Served Us Really Well When We Lived In An Environment That Was Very Threatening.

Never Have Public Feuds With Anyone Who's Surrounded By People Who Carry Guns.

Over Time, I Started Becoming More Aware Of The Vastness And Complexity Of The Universe, Which Led Me Away From Any Sort Of Conventional Christianity. I Still Love The Teachings Of Christ, But I Also Believe That The Human Condition Prevents Us From Having Any True Objective Knowledge Of The Universe. All Human Belief Systems Are Inherently Flawed. If I Had To Label Myself Now, I'd Call Myself A Taoist-christian-agnostic Quantum Mechanic. Also, There's Nothing In The Actual Bible That Limits A Christian In Their Interest In Science. Anti-science Is A Function Of Ignorant Fundamentalism.

I Believe That The Role Of Limited Government Should Be Looking After The Needs Of Veterans, The Elderly, Children And Those Institutions That Improve The Quality Of Life For Struggling Families - I Don't Believe That Government Should Bend To Serve The Needs Of Subsidized Multi-national Corporations And Entitled Billionaires.

I'm Gonna Have To Start Walking Down The Street And Start Hitting People In The Head!

I'm Obsessed With Politics, And I Talk About It Any Chance I Can Get. I Have Strong Opinions About How The World Should Be Run.

There's Not A Lot Of Precedent For Weird, Bald Musicians In The Lower East Side Making Records In Their Bedrooms And Going On To Sell A Lot Of Copies Of The Record. Especially If You Look At The Pop Climate.

It's The Age Old Thing: If You Want To Get Elected, Blame Immigrants. It Worked In The 20th Century And It Works Now, And It's Heart-breaking To See People Make The Same Mistakes. They're Looking At A Complicated World, But They Just Keep Blaming Immigrants, And It's Really Disturbing That People Haven't Got Past That.

Lord, I Want To Be Up In My Heart.

In The Course Of My Life, I've Made Some Happy Songs But It's The More Sort Of Like Pathos-laden, Emotional, Melancholic Music That Either I Make Or That Other People Make That Really Resonates With Me.

Why Can't A Democrat Get Fired Up About Protecting The Environment And Enacting Gun Control Legislation Just As Right Wing Republicans Get Fired Up About Making Sure That Children Have Access To Assault Weapons And Banning 'the Catcher In The Rye' And 'harry Potter'?

Assault Weapons

In Some Of The Greatest Recordings Ever Made, The Performance Is A Part Of The Recording. Dylan's 'rainy Day Women No. 12 And 35' Is All About The Esthetic Of That Performance. You Can Hear The Room.

The World Is Experiencing Great Change, But You've Got Loads Of People Terrified Of This Change And The Donald Trumps, The Boris Johnsons Making Utterly Simplistic, Reductionist Policy Proposals That Are Unrealistic But Then People Buy It Up.

Maybe It's A Form Of Overcompensation, But Whenever I've Toured, I've Always Needed A Huge Performance Component.

When I Was Growing Up, Albums Were My Closest Friends, As Sad As That May Sound - Joy Division's 'closer,' Or Echo And The Bunnymen's 'heaven Up Here'... I Had A More Intimate Relationship With Those Records Than I Did With Most Of The People In My Life.

Intimate Relationships

In A Way I Almost Feel Like The Election Of Donald Trump Has Inspired Democrats And Progressives And Punk Rockers In A Way That Hasn't Been Seen Since Vietnam.

I Think It'd Be Great If Prince Made An Album Of Just Romantic, Slow Ballads.

Factory-farm Lobbyists Are So Powerful And So Well Funded And They Do Everything In Their Power To Hide The Truth About Farming. They Keep The Farms And Slaughterhouses In Places That Most People Never Visit; They Execute Huge Marketing Campaigns In An Effort To Make Animal Production Look Like A Happy, Nice, Benign Institution.

And If We Obey God, We Must Disobey Ourselves, And It Is In This Disobeying Ourselves, Wherein The Hardness Of Obeying God Consists.

I Find Myself For Whatever Reason Unable To Live In The Apartment I Renovate And Have To Sell.

I Realized The Universe Is 15 Billion Years Old And Unspeakably Complicated. I Still Love The Teachings Of Christ, But I Also Believe That The Human Condition Prevents Us From Having Any True Objective Knowledge And Understanding Of The Universe.

If Someone Writes A Nice Review Of My Record, I Feel Like I Should Take Them Out To Dinner Or Go Over And Clean Their Apartment.

I Know It's Simple, But My Main Inspiration Is Just My Love Of Music. I Know That Sounds Overly Naive. But It's True.

That Is Not All I Need. I Need Dogs. A House Filled With Dogs And A Smart, Funny, Kind, Loving Girlfriend Or Wife.

Musically, New York Is A Big Influence On Me. Walk Down The Street For Five Minutes And You'll Hear Homeless Punk Rockers, People Playing Caribbean Music And Reggae, Sacred Islamic Music And Latino Music, So Many Different Types Of Music.

I Read The New Testament, Specifically The Gospels And I Was Struck At Their Divinity, Feeling That Humans Could Not Have Figured This Out On Their Own. We're Just Not Bright Enough.

I Don't Have Children, But I Imagine If Parents Are Really Pushed On The Subject, They Probably Have Favorite Children.

I'm A Terrible Cook, So I Usually Eat Out With Friends.

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