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.

-Moby

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I Like Noise. It's

Moby

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.

Topic

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

Humility

People

Broken

In Some Ways It's Hard To See Electronic Music As A Genre Because The Word "electronic" Just Refers To How It's Made. Hip-hop Is Electronic Music. Most Reggae Is Electronic. Pop Is Electronic. House Music, Techno, All These Sorts Of Ostensibly Disparate Genres Are Sort Of Being Created With The Same Equipment.

House

Hip Hop

Way

Punishing People For Listening To Music Is Exactly The Wrong Way To Protect The Music Business.

People

Listening

Way

If You're Inclined To Dismiss L.a. As A Place Of Unrelenting Vapidity And Generic 1980s Architecture, Then You're Doing Yourself And L.a. A Huge Disservice, And You're Just Not Looking Hard Enough.

Architecture

Enough

Generic

There Are Some Public Figures Who Are Very Private And Almost Hide Behind Their Work. I Try To Be As Open As Possible.

Trying

Figures

Behinds

When Public Figures Think They Can Open A Business Even Though They've Got No Business Experience, It's A Bad Idea.

Thinking

Ideas

Figures

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

Animal

Thinking

Earthquakes

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.

Musician

Climate

East

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.

Song

Air

Hands

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.

Self

Years

Drunk

Ketamine's Such A Waste Of Time Drug. All You Do When You're On Ketamine Is Go: 'oh, I'm On Drugs. I Don't Feel Good, I Don't Feel Bad, I'm Just On Drugs...'

Feel Good

Drug

Waste

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.

Negativity

Brain

Environment

One Of The Problems With Being Relatively Conscious And Human, Is That You Want To Help Everybody.

Want

Helping

Problem

A Vegan Who Beats His Wife Is Far Further Down The Ethical Ladder Than A Meat Eater Who's Kind To His Children.

Children

Wife

Meat

I Joined Facebook Purely So I Could Play Online Scrabble. You Have Eight Tiles Instead Of Seven, So You Tend To Have Higher Scores. I'm Somewhere Between 400 And 500.

Eight

Play

Scrabble

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.

Goal

Elements

Noise

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.

Thinking

Practice

Meditation

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.

New York

Islamic

People

I Had An Epiphany A Few Years Ago Where I Was Out At A Celebrity Party And It Suddenly Dawned On Me That I Had Yet To Meet A Celebrity Who Is As Smart And Interesting As Any Of My Friends.

Smart

Party

Years

My Records Are Fairly Quiet And My Dj Sets Are Really Loud. And Then The Live Shows Are Like A Robot Soul Revue. So I Understand People's Confusion.

People

Confusion

Soul

Should The Progressives In Germany In The 30s Have Tolerated The National Socialists? Of Course They Shouldn't Have.

Germany

Should

Courses

We Almost Need To Cultivate - I Hate To Sound New Age-y - But To Cultivate A Positive Bias, And Really Work To Focus On Those Things And Notice Those Things That Are Wonderful And Uplifting.

Uplifting

Hate

Focus

I Find The Fact That So Few People Buy Albums To Be Strangely Emancipating. There's Absolutely No Reason For 99% Of Musicians Making Albums To Think About Actually Selling Albums. So As A Musician You Can Just Make An Album For The Love Of Making Albums.

Thinking

People

Musician

When You Look At The Consequences Of Climate Change, At Rainforest Deforestation, At Antibiotic Resistance, These Are Not Necessarily Political Issues, But Rather Issues That Have The Ability To Threaten Our Species.

Issues

Political

Climate

When I Can Really Open Myself Up To Someone And Show Someone Who I Really Am, It's Amazing When It Happens.

Shows

Happens

I Can

I Buy Things With The Best Of Intention Of Living In Them And Then Life Intercedes.

Intention

I Have To Say That Being A Vegan In 1986 Or Whenever Was A Lot Different Than Being A Vegan In 2012. You'd Go To Health Foods Stores And Basically Your Choice Was Between Mung Beans And Nutritional Yeast, And That's About It.

Choices

Different

Yeast

For Me, New York Still Ranks As The Most Beautiful And The Most Interesting City In The World. It Is Also The Most Varied In Terms Of The Things It Has To Offer.

Beautiful

New York

Cities

Look Not Too Long In The Face Of The Fire, O Man! Never Dream With Thy Hand On The Helm! Turn Not Thy Back To The Compass; Accept The First Hint Of The Hitching Tiller; Believe Not The Artificial Fire, When Its Redness Makes All Things Look Ghastly. To-morrow, In The Natural Sun, The Skies Will Be Bright; Those Who Glared Like Devils In The Forking Flames, The Morn Will Show In Far Other, At Least Gentler, Relief; The Glorious, Golden, Glad Sun, The Only True Lamp—all Others But Liars!

Dream

Liars

Believe

I Don't Think Too Much About How It Might Exist In The World In A Commercial Sense - I More Just Try And Focus On Making Music That I Love And Trying To Put It Out Into The World.

Thinking

Focus

Trying

I Honestly Haven't Thought Much About What To Play And Where, Perhaps I Should...it Seems Like Most Musicians Are Better At That Than I Am.

Play

Musician

Should

If Someone Is Cynical And Doesn't Vote And Ends Up With A Crummy Job In A Crummy Country With A Decimated Environment, They Only Have Themselves To Blame.

Country

Jobs

Cynical

Sometimes People Will Think, I Need To Have Pre-sanctioned Spiritual Joy. Getting Joy From My Contemplative Meditation Practice Or Getting Joy From Reading Thich Nhat Hahn Books. Those Things Can Be Joyful But I Think It’s The Small, Simple Joys Of Playing With Dogs Or Having Sex With Someone You Love Or Going For A Walk Outside, Stuff That We Tend To Ignore.

Spiritual

Dog

Sex

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

People

Direct

Consequence

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.

Writing

Emotional

Creating

People Love Their Favorite Records. And I Aspire To Make A Record Someone Might Be Able To Love In That Way.

People

Records

Might

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.

Mean

Self Worth

Perspective

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.

Support

Trying

Musician

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

Sleep

Long

People

I'd Just Rather Have A Really Sharp, Interesting, Smart Gay Son Than Some Big Dumb Hetero Meathead.

Smart

Son

Gay

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.

Long

People

Trying

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.

Hard Times

Talking

Joy

Intellectually, Human Beings And Animals May Be Different, But It's Pretty Obvious That Animals Have A Rich Emotional Life And That They Feel Joy And Pain. It's Easy To Forget The Connection Between A Hamburger And The Cow It Came From. But I Forced Myself To Acknowledge The Fact That Every Time I Ate A Hamburger, A Cow Had Ceased To Breathe

Pain

Animal

Emotional

I Honestly Just Love Being In My Studio Working On Music. That's All The Inspiration I Need. And I Don't Write With An End Result In Mind, I Just Write For The Simple Love Of Writing.

Inspiration

Writing

Love Is

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

Gay

Wake Up

If You Make A Record, You Should Ask Yourself, 'did It Make Someone Cry, In A Good Way, Not A Bad Way?' There Should Almost Be Subjective Emotional Criteria For Evaluating Work, Instead Of Just Profitability.

Emotional

Records

Way

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

Musician

East

Records

What Makes Me Vulnerable Is Any Genuine Expression Of Emotion In The Presence Of Another Person. It Makes Me Vulnerable And My Inclination Is, Of Course, Immediately To Back Away From Anything That Makes Me Vulnerable.

Expression

Emotion

Vulnerable

If You Look At Someone Like Joe Strummer Or John Lennon, When You Heard Their Music You Knew That They Wrote It And They Cared About It.

Looks

Lennon

Heard

In The Past I've Had Public Feuds With People, And I Have Really Not Benefited From Any Of Them. The Feud With Eminem Did Kind Of Torpedo My Career In The United States, But It Also Introduced Me To Middle America In A Way I Never Could Have Conceived Of.

Past

Careers

America

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

Growing Up

Diversity

House

You Can't Find An Uglier Urban Environment Than The Centre Of Hollywood, But Then You Go To Griffith Park, You Go To The Beach, You Go To The Mountains, And It's Rural. I Live Up In The Hollywood Hills And I Have Frogs, Owls, Coyotes, Mountain Lions - But I'm Ten Minutes From The Centre Of The City.

Beach

Cities

Hollywood Hills

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.

Sociopath

Delusional

Cases

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.

People

Addiction

Normal

When I Was Fifteen Years Old, The Only Distinction In Music My Friends And I Made Was [that] There's Music Made By People With Short Hair And Music Made By People With Long Hair.

Hair

Years

Long

One Time I Was Doing An Interview For A Gay Magazine And Halfway Through The Journalist Found Out I Wasn't Gay. He Said, 'sorry, I Can't Continue The Interview.' Because They Only Had Gay Public Figures In Their Magazine. I Felt So Crestfallen. I Wanted To Tell Him: But I Play Fundraisers For Gay Marriage! I'd Rather My Kids Were Gay Than Straight!'

Sorry

Kids

Gay

At 3 O'clock In The Morning On Tour When You're Sober Is A Lot Less Fun Than 3 A.m. When You're Drunk In A Bar Or In A Nightclub. But Having Said That, 9 In The Morning On Tour Sober Is Immeasurably Better Than 9 A.m. On Tour When You're Hung Over And Feeling Like Death.

Morning

Fun

Drunk

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?

Ideas

People

Racist

Success Usually Breeds A Degree Of Hubris.

Degrees

Hubris

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.

Successful

Long

Interesting

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

Strange

Touring

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

Bowie

Popular Music

Knows

We Need To Finally Accept That All Sentient Creatures Are Deserving Of Basic Rights. I Define Basic Rights As This -the Ability To Pursue Life Without Having Someone Else's Will Involuntarily Forced Upon You.

Acceptance

Animal

Rights

You Make Mistakes And You Learn From Them.

Mistake

Making Mistakes

The Moment A Career Is On A Quantitative Downswing, Your Loathsomeness Is Sort Of Attenuated.

Careers

Moments

If I Had To Label Myself Now, I'd Call Myself A Taoist-christian-agnostic Quantum Mechanic.

Christian

Labels

Agnostic

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.

Morning

Stupid

Sleep

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

Stars

Causes

Made

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.

Arbitrary

Exclusion

Kind

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.

New York

Doors

People

When Britney Shaves Off All Her Hair And Beats Paparazzi With Umbrellas - That's What Celebrities Are Supposed To Do. They're Not Supposed To Be Reasonable, Middle-aged Guys Drinking Organic Tea Talking About Semiotics.

Drinking

Hair

Talking

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.

Ideas

Worry

Understanding

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

Doe

World

Exposure

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

Heart

Pouring

Singers

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.

Fall

People

Judging

Can't Do Any Work With A Rock Star; You Have To Go Through Their Lawyers And Their Agents And Their Managers And You Have To Book Them Hotel Rooms. When You Work With Your Friends, You Just Call Them Up And They Come Over And You Record And Then You Go Out To See A Movie.

Stars

Book

Rocks

My Mother And I Were On Welfare And Food Stamps Until I Was 18, So I've Always Had This Ethos Of, Like, 'try And Make A Little Bit Of Money Now Because You Don't Know What's Going To Happen Tomorrow.'

Mother

Ethos

Trying

I Saw People Around Me Who Were Falling Deeper And Deeper Into Alcoholism And Substance Abuse. It's Seductive Because Alcohol Is Amazing And Drugs Are Amazing, They Work So Well.

Fall

People

Seductive

How Wondrous Familiar Is A Fool!

Fool

Familiar

Wondrous

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.

Accomplishment

Want

Culture

I Wasn't Raised Catholic; I Just Really Like The Image Of A Neutral And Benign Mary Floating Around Somewhere, Being Nice To People.

Nice

People

Catholic

I Like Tea And Yoga, But I Don't Do Yoga.

Yoga

Tea

I Don't Put A Lot Of Pressure On Myself When I'm Writing. It Feels Like If I Come Up With Something Good, Or I Come Up With Something Bad, I'm Not Too Worried.

Writing

Pressure

Worried

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.

People

World

Proposal

Oftentimes Things That Seem Really Difficult And Traumatic In The Short Term Seem A Lot Less Difficult And Traumatic In The Long Term.

Long

Difficult

Term

I Think That Growing Up Very Poor In A Very Wealthy Town Gave Me A Sense Of Being An Outsider, And I Hated It When I Was Growing Up.

Growing Up

Thinking

Towns

I Believe That To Knowingly Commit Actions That Cause Or Condone Suffering Is Reprehensible In The Extreme. I Call Upon You To Be Compassionate And Treat Others As You Want To Be Treated. If You Don't Want To Be Beaten, Imprisoned, Mutilated, Killed Or Tortured Then You Shouldn't Condone Such Behavior Towards Anyone, Be They Human Or Not.

Believe

Suffering

Want

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

White

Guy

Looks

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.

Thinking

People

Leader

For Me, Love Is Very Non-academic. Love, It’s A Very Physical Thing. I Don’t Mean Physical In Terms Of - I Mean, It Can Be Sexual. But Those Moments When I’m Aware Of The Fact That I Love Someone Or Love Something, It Really Manifests Physically.

Mean

Love Is

Facts

People Assume That Somehow Fame And Wealth Will Keep Mortality At Bay.

People

Assuming

Wealth

Some Of The Songs I've Made, I'm Really Disappointed In How I Mixed Them.

Song

Made

Disappointed

All Of Us Little Bald White Guys Wearing Glasses Kind Of Look The Same.

Glasses

White

Guy

Sacha Baron Cohen Is One Of My Heroes.

Hero

My Hero

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.

Reading

Practice

California

When I Was Growing Up I Was An Atheist, Then An Agnostic, And Then I Had A Good Eight Or Ten Years Of Being Quite A Serious Christian.

Christian

Atheist

Growing Up

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.

People

Littles

Opinion

So Man's Insanity Is Heaven's Sense, And Wandering From All Mortal Reason, Man Comes At Last To That Celestial Thought, Which, To Reason, Is Absurd And Frantic; And Weal Or Woe, Feels Then Uncompromised, Indifferent As His God.

Men

Heaven

Insanity

When I Was Growing Up, I Was The Most Pretentious Person I Have Ever Met. I Only Read Obscure Books And Watched Obscure Movies And Only Listened To Obscure Music.

Growing Up

Book

Obscure

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.

Jobs

Night

Play

All Human Belief Systems Are Inherently Flawed.

Belief

Flawed

Belief Systems

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.

Art

Trying

Literature

I Was Trying To Convince Myself I Could Learn To Be Gay - But No. That's One Of My Great Regrets.

Regret

Gay

Trying

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.

Lonely

Children

Fun

The Truth Is That Genetics Has Robbed Me Of Hair. But It's Not Interesting To Blame Genetics.

Hair

Interesting

Blame

I Made A Record In 1996 Called 'animal Rights' That Was A Very Difficult, Very Dark Punk-rock Record. Of All The Records I've Made, It's My Favorite One. It's Also The One That Got The Worst Reviews And Sold The Worst.

Dark

Animal

Rights

As Music Became More Profitable In The 1990s, It Seemed Like It Attracted A Lot Of People Who Were Just Interested In The Financial Aspect Of It, Which Is Depressing.

Depressing

People

Financial

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.

Sound

Radio

Faces

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

Eye

Weather

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.

Inspire

Needs

Tortillas

I Love Lots Of Different Types Of Music, But It's Music That Has This Up-swelling Of Beauty And Emotion That Is Most Important To Me.

Important

Different

Emotion

I've Had Insomnia Since I Was A Little Kid And I Never Sleep Well. Sometimes I Sleep Very Badly And Sometimes I Sleep Slightly Badly. I Get It Especially When I'm On Tour Because You Cross A Lot Of Time Zones, And I'm Not Very Adaptable.

Sleep

Kids

Insomnia

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

Beautiful

Emotional

People

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.

Morning

Lines

Sometimes

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.

Spiritual

Emotional

Meditation Practice

I Always Feel Kind Of Absurd And Presumptuous Presenting A Speech.

Speech

Kind

Absurd

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.

Hurt

Drinking

Thinking

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

Form

Needed

Components

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

Faces

Very Inspiring

Ifs

I Like To Quote Homer Simpson: 'i'm Like A Chocoholic Except For Alcohol.' I Come From A Long Line Of Alcoholics. It's Funny Because When I First Started Making Records, I Was At The Tail End Of A Period Of Sobriety, So I Somehow Got This Reputation As Captain Sober.

Long

Sobriety

Alcohol

I Can't Think Of Any Musician Or Producer Who Has Influenced Me More Than Brian Eno. From When He Was In Roxy Music, Producing Devo, The Talking Heads And My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts.

Thinking

Talking

Musician

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.

Ideas

Dollars

Culture

I'm Straight, But I Love Going To House Music Clubs And Flirting With Women And Gay Men.

Gay

Flirting

Men

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.

Growing Up

Echoes

Intimate Relationships

There Might Be A Lot Of Difference Between Republicans And Democrats On Key Social Issues Like Women's Rights And Health Care. But When It Comes To Taking Corporate Cash, They're Pretty Much The Same Beast.

Keys

Rights

Differences

Have I Dated A Supermodel? Of Course Not. I'd Look Ridiculous.

Looks

Ridiculous

Supermodel

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.

Song

Emotional

People

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

Ideas

People

Use

When Famous People Are Nice To Me, It Feels Good, So I'm Happy To Hang Out With Them. It's Better Than Being At Home, Depressed, Reading 'the Hobbit.'

Nice

Reading

Home

My Biggest Concern Is Trying To Keep Crazy Republicans Out Of Office.

Crazy

Office

Trying

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.

Vastness

Becoming

Christianity

The Good Thing About Not Being Drop-dead Gorgeous Is That As Time Passes, I Don't Have Much To Worry About. I Have Friends Who Are Actors And Every Day They Look In The Mirror With Trepidation.

Mirrors

Worry

Looks

My Reason For Becoming A Vegetarian Was Simple: I Loved (and Love) Animals

Animal

Simple

And Love

The People Who Get More Fame, Who Get More Money, More Often Than Not They Are Miserable, Insecure And On Anti-depressants. It's Strange That Everyone Keeps Buying Into This Idea That More Success Is Good, That More Fame Is Good, That More Money Is Good. Yet, We Look At The People Who Have More Success, More Fame, More Money And They're Miserable.

Insecure

Ideas

People

The Young Have To Kill The Old. The Young, If They Want To Achieve Their Own Platform, Have To Diminish The Reputations Of The Ones That Have Gone Before. That's How Life Works.

Gone

Want

Reputation

I Was Never Encouraged To Believe Anything. I Was Brought Up In A Profoundly Agnostic Or Pantheistic Community.

Believe

Community

Agnostic

I'm Perfectly Happy For My Videos To Be On Youtube, Whether I'm Getting Paid For Them Or Not. If They're On Youtube, People Will See Them. If For Some Reason My Videos Get Taken Down From Youtube, Well, I Apologize. If It Was Up To Me They'd All Be Up There And They'd All Be Free.

Taken

People

Video

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

Taken

People

Problem

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.

Fall

Looks

World

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.

People

Drunk

Judging

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.

Eye

Romantic Love

Family Love

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

Pristine

Involved

Listeners

My Main Interest Is Just To Work With People Who Have Beautiful, Interesting, Emotive Voices; I'm Not Too Concerned Whether Someone Is Famous.

Beautiful

Voice

People

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

Terrible

Cooks

There Is A Dysfunctional Strangeness To Los Angeles That Doesn't Exist In Any Other Western City. The Roads Are Crumbling, No-one Knows What They're Doing, The City Government Barely Works.

Government

Cities

Crumbling

I Feel Compelled To Make Art That On One Hand Reflects And Sometimes Almost Creates Like A Sense Of Comfort When Confronted With The Strangeness Of The World.

Art

Hands

Comfort

I Have No Patience For Anyone Who Thinks They've Figured Things Out, No Patience For People Who Think They're Right At The Expense Of Everyone Else. The World Is Too Connected And Too Complicated To Conform To Any Of Our Rigid Ideas Of What It Should Be Like.

Thinking

Ideas

People

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.

Years

People

Unhappy

I Truly Don't Judge Other People's Actions. But I Think That Factory Farming Is An Abomination.

Thinking

People

Judging

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

Dog

Girlfriend

Smart

I Love That Vinyl Is Actually Growing In Popularity, And That There Are So Many Great Record Stores.

Records

Growing

Vinyl

If We Base Our Belief Systems On The Humble Assumption That The Complexities Of The World Are Ontologically Beyond Our Understanding, Then Maybe Our Belief Systems Will Make More Sense And End Up Causing Less Suffering.

Humble

Understanding

Suffering

It Will Be Interesting To See What The Long Term Fruits Of Our National Apathy Will Be, 'cos So Far They've Been Pretty Foul.

Long

Interesting

Apathy

When I Tour I'm Going To Countries To Play Music For People. My Presence In A Country Is Not An Endorsement Or A Condemnation Of That Country's Policies. My Presence In A Country Is An Effort To Connect With People Through Playing Music.

Country

Israel

Play

I'm Like A Bad Musical Cliche Because I Bring My Guitar On The Road And Try To Write Songs In Hotel Rooms.

Song

Writing

Guitar

What Makes Me Feel Old Is Having No Hair On The Top Of My Head.

Hair

Feels

Who Wakes Up When They're Worth £120million And Says, 'i'm Unhappy Today But If Only I Had An Extra £2million!'

Unhappy

Wake Up

Today

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.

Different

Way

Exclusion

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.

Powerful

Nice

Animal

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.

Hate

Successful

Play

I Was On Food Stamps Until I Was 18 And Became An Adult.

Adults

Food Stamps

Stamps

Scotland Is One Of My Favourite Places To Perform: It's Really Something Special. Scottish Audiences Are Just So Enthusiastic; Their Approach To Dance Music Just Feels Similar To My Own Somehow.

Scotland

Special

Scottish

I Don't Know Many Artists Who Are Happy With Themselves All Of The Time.

Artist

Knows

I Like Being Vegan, I Think It's Good For My Health.

Thinking

Vegan

As Far As I'm Concerned, The Whole Point Of Making Music Is To Get It Heard By As Many People As Possible.

People

Music Is

Heard

The Good Thing About Working Alone Is I Get A Lot Done And I Can Experiment More. The Bad Thing Is I Miss Out On The Gregarious, Social Way That Most Musicians Work.

Missing

Musician

Working Alone

I'm Definitely A Fan Of Public Humiliation.

Fans

Humiliation

If One Of My Heroes Comes To Me And Says, 'do You Want To Work On Something?' I Just Say, 'yes.' I Don't Ask For Details; I Don't Expect To Get Paid Anything. I Just Love Working With My Heroes.

Hero

Details

Want

Somehow, Magically, I've Become An Electronic Musician, And I Have A Recording Studio That Looks Like The Bridge Of The Enterprise.

Bridges

Musician

Looks

I Feel That One Of The Reasons Brexit Happened Was That People Stayed At Home Rather Than Going To The Polls.

Home

People

Reason

New York Has Inspired More Remarkable Music Than Any Other City I Can Think Of.

New York

Thinking

Cities

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.

New York

Drinking

Artist

There Are So Many Causes. Gun Control, Climate Change, Deforestation, Animal Welfare, Human Welfare, Education. Working On The Big Issues Is Noble And Great, But Being Aware Of What’s Going On Around You Right At This Moment, Being Kind To The People Around You, Extending Compassion And Decency, Not Just To Everyone You Meet But Also To Yourself—i Think That’s One Of The Biggest Challenges Most People Face.

Animal

Gun

Thinking

I Love The Fact That No One's Ever Bought My Record Because They Were Enamoured Of The Way I Look. Maybe One Person. There Must Be Someone Out There With Compromised Taste.

Looks

Records

Way

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

Criminals

Enough

Justification

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.

Children

Slavery

Vote

I Don't Think Of Myself As A Singer; I Usually End Up Singing When I Can't Find Anyone Better To Sing, Or When I'm Too Lazy To Find Someone Better.

Thinking

Lazy

Singing

I Found It Incredibly Disheartening That In The Late '90s, Suddenly Pop Culture Became Even More Misogynistic And More Homophobic, And So I Criticized Eminem For Having Lyrics That Were Egregiously Homophobic And Egregiously Misogynistic.

Culture

Found

Pops

If You Look At The History Of Demagoguery And Fascism, It Always Happens When There Are Two Things. It Requires A Gentle Populace To Allow It To Happen, Whether Through Laziness, Ignorance Or Ineptitude, But It Also Requires A Very Angry, Dissatisfied Section Of The Populace Who Want Egregiously Simple Answers To Very Complicated Problems.

Ignorance

Simple

Two

Whenever I've Had Success, I Never Learn From It. Success Usually Breeds A Degree Of Hubris. When You Fail, That's When You Learn.

Degrees

Failing

Hubris

You Could Almost Say That Throughout Human History There Are People Who Can Either Foresee Consequences Or Who Are Capable Of Looking For Information And Predicting The Consequences Will Happen, But The Vast Majority Of People Won't Respond To Climate Change Until Their City Is Underwater, Food Supply Is Disrupted Or Everyone Around Them Is Dying Of Zoonotic Disease. It's Almost Like Someone Dealing With An Addiction, Like You Hope That The Person Can Overcome The Addiction Before The Addiction Kills Them.

Cities

People

Addiction

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.

Christian

Teaching

Believe

People Who Meditate And Have A Good Spiritual Practice, Their Immune Systems Are Stronger. Generally, They Are Happier And Healthier.

Spiritual

Practice

People

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

True Evil

World

Republican

God Took His Chosen People And We Are What's Left. He Looked At What's Left And Thought: I Could Kill You All, But Let's See What Happens. A Little Social Experiment.

People

Littles

Social

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.

Bed

Want

Able

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

Simple

Noses

Ugh

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

Needs

Way

Audience

One Of The Main Reasons I'm Vegan Is Because I'm Ethically Lazy. My Friends Who Eat Meat Or Who Eat Eggs Have To Sometimes Wrestle With The Ethical Consequences Of Their Actions. By Being Vegan, I Take The Easy Way Out.

Eggs

Lazy

Meat

This Isn't Like Naming Your Dog Spot.

Dog

Spots

The Average Life Expectancy Of A Celebrity Is 20 Years Less Than Someone Working In A Coal Mine.

Average

Years

Coal

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.

Horse

Political Will

Breathing

If I Were To Be Really Petulant, I Would Say New York Is The One Doing The Betraying. Because The New York I Fell In Love With Doesn't Really Exist Anymore.

New York

Betray

Ifs

I Grew Up Obsessed With Science Fiction, And When I Was Really Young, I Wanted To Be A Scientist.

Fiction

Scientist

Obsessed

I've Never Seen Friends; I've Never Seen Seinfeld. I've Heard People Reference These Things But I've Never Seen Them.

People

Heard

I Wanted To Have A Title That Wasn't In English So That Someone In France, For Instance, Could Ask For 'dix-huit' Or The Someone In Japan Could Ask For 'juhachi.'

Japan

Titles

France

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.

Home

America

People

Shaving Your Head Is Acceptable. It's When You Start Wearing Toupees And Brushing Your Hair Over That Things Go Wrong.

Hair

Shaving

Brushing

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.

Thinking

People

Care

Understanding Quotes: Their Essence and Application

Quotes, or quotations, are powerful tools in communication, encapsulating ideas, emotions, and wisdom in concise expressions. They serve various purposes across different contexts, from academic writing to everyday conversation.

1. Defining Quotes

A quote is a repetition of someone else's statement or thoughts. It can be a direct replication of words spoken or written by another individual, often used to support arguments, provide evidence, or convey profound insights.

2. The Importance of Quotes

2.1. Enhancing Credibility

Incorporating quotes from authoritative sources can bolster the credibility of your work. By referencing experts or primary sources, you demonstrate thorough research and a solid foundation for your arguments.

2.2. Providing Evidence

Quotes serve as concrete evidence to support claims. In academic and professional writing, they validate points made, offering readers a basis to trust the information presented.

2.3. Conveying Emotions and Perspectives

Quotes can encapsulate emotions and perspectives succinctly. They allow writers to express complex feelings or viewpoints through the words of others, often more eloquently than paraphrasing.

3. Types of Quotes

3.1. Direct Quotes

Direct quotes involve copying the exact words from a source, enclosed in quotation marks. They are used when the original wording is significant or particularly well-expressed.

3.2. Indirect Quotes (Paraphrasing)

Indirect quotes restate the original message in your own words. While not enclosed in quotation marks, they still require proper attribution to the original source.

3.3. Block Quotes

Block quotes are lengthy direct quotations, formatted as a separate block of text. They are typically used for quotes exceeding a certain length, varying by citation style. For instance, in APA style, quotes longer than 40 words are formatted as block quotes.

4. Proper Usage of Quotes

4.1. Contextual Relevance

Ensure that the quote you choose is relevant to the topic and adds value to your content. Avoid inserting quotes solely for decorative purposes.

4.2. Integration into Your Writing

Seamlessly integrate quotes into your writing. Introduce them appropriately and follow up with analysis or commentary to connect them to your main points.

4.3. Attribution and Citation

Always attribute quotes to their original authors and provide proper citations according to the required style guide (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).

5. Common Mistakes to Avoid

5.1. Overusing Quotes

Relying too heavily on quotes can overshadow your voice. Use them sparingly to support your arguments, not replace them.

5.2. Lack of Analysis

Presenting a quote without analysis or explanation can leave readers questioning its relevance. Always follow up with your interpretation or discussion.

5.3. Misquoting or Taking Out of Context

Ensure that quotes are accurate and not taken out of context, as this can mislead readers and undermine your credibility.

6. Quotes in Different Contexts

6.1. Academic Writing

In academic writing, quotes are used to support arguments, provide evidence, and engage with existing literature. Proper citation is crucial to avoid plagiarism.

6.2. Journalism

Journalists use quotes to provide firsthand accounts, add authenticity, and present multiple perspectives within a story.

6.3. Literature and Creative Writing

In literature, quotes can be used to convey character voices, themes, and stylistic elements. They enrich narratives and provide depth to storytelling.

7. Punctuation and Formatting

Understanding the correct punctuation and formatting of quotes is essential:

Quotation Marks: Always enclose direct quotes within quotation marks.

Punctuation Placement: In American English, periods and commas are placed inside quotation marks, while colons and semicolons are placed outside.

Block Quotes: For longer quotes, format them as block quotes without quotation marks, and indent the entire block.

8. Ethical Considerations

Ethical use of quotes involves accurate representation, proper attribution, and respect for intellectual property. Misuse can lead to plagiarism, which carries serious academic and professional consequences.

9. Tools for Managing Quotes

Utilize tools like citation generators and plagiarism checkers to manage quotes effectively. These tools help ensure proper formatting and originality in your writing.

Conclusion

Quotes are invaluable in enriching content, providing evidence, and conveying complex ideas succinctly. When used appropriately, they enhance the quality and credibility of your writing. Always ensure relevance, proper integration, and ethical usage to maximize their impact.

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