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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.

-Moby

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When I Was Growing

Moby

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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.

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Intimate Relationships

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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.

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

Nasa Is An Utterly Fascinating Place, And The Fact That The Buildings Look So Anonymous Almost Make It More Fascinating. You Walk By A Generic Office-park-looking Building, And You Have No Idea What's Going On Inside.

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

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

If A Musician Is Making A Mediocre, Self-indulgent Body Of Work, They Have To Know That, For The Most Part, People Aren't Going To Be Interested.

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.

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.

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.

When You Say 'failure,' That Seems Really Dramatic, But A Lot Of Failure Is Just Really Depressing And Mundane. I Remember The First Time I Ever Played A Concert In Italy. I Played A Venue That Held 900 People, And I Think Five People Showed Up. It Wasn't A Big, 'john Carter Of Mars' Type Failure. It Wasn't Dramatic; It Was Just Depressing.

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

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

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

The Midlife Crisis You're Having At 30 Is Indulgent, But The Midlife Crisis You Have At 45 Is To An Extent Thrust Upon You.

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

I Went To Columbia University Because They Were Doing A Study On People Who Suffered From Panic Attacks, And Because I Suffered From Panic Attacks My Whole Life, I Decided To Be A Part Of It. They Had This Questionnaire Where They Asked, How Many Units Of Alcohol Do You Have In A Month? The Top Answer Was 40 Or More, And I Got Really Scared Because I Was Having On Average 60 Or 70 Drinks A Week. And I Realized That That Was A Bad Sign.

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

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.

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.

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

I'm Definitely A Fan Of Public Humiliation.

Once The Pathological Low Self-esteem Goes, That's When Things Go Downhill.

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

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

All Human Belief Systems Are Inherently Flawed.

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

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.

Could You Look An Animal In The Eyes And Say To It, 'my Appetite Is More Important Than Your Suffering'?

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

Britney [spears]'s Actually Kind Of Like A Broken-down Shell Of A Human Being, That's What Makes Her So Endearing And Compelling.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Let Peace And Beauty Reign.

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.

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

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.

Luckily Almost No One Buys Music Anymore, So Selling Music Doesn't Really Affect Any Of My Professional Decisions.

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.

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.

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

How Wondrous Familiar Is A Fool!

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

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

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 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.

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.

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

I'd Much Rather Go Out And Have Music Randomly Presented To Me By Different Djs Than Stay Home And Discover It On My Own.

I Have Actually Found Myself Buying Up More And More Old Analogue Gear. I Have This Strange Obsession With Old Drum Machines.

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?

As Long As The World Continues To Be Strange And Interesting, I Still Want To Take Pictures Of It.

If You Don't Want To Be Beaten, Imprisoned, Mutilated, Killed Ot Tortured, Then You Shouldn't Condone Such Behaviour Towards Anyone, Be They Human Or Not.

Success Usually Breeds A Degree Of Hubris.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

When I Was Growing Up, All I Wanted To Do Was Fit In, But If You're Perpetually An Outsider, It Gives You A Perspective That Might Have A Little More Objectivity Than People Who Really Feel Connected To Their Social Environment In Which They Grow Up.

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.

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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.

I Won't Complain About Touring, Because I Really Do Believe That A Public-figure Musician Complaining About Being A Public-figure Musician Is Just Absurd. Like, 'boo Hoo Hoo! I Have To Stand On Stage And People Pay Attention To Me!'

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.

I Run Into A Lot Of People Who Are Instantly Filled With Ridicule At The Idea That Someone Wouldn't Eat Meat.

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

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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.

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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.

I Will Be Very Sad When Global Warming And Toxins Kill Off All The Toads And Frogs And Salamanders. Here's Hoping We, As Humans, Figure Out A Way To Be Less Stupid.

The Strange Thing About Hotel Rooms Is That They Look Familiar And Seem Familiar And Have Many Of The Accoutrements That Seem Domestic And Familiar, But They Are Really Weird, Alien And Anonymous Places.

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.

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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.

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.

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

Most Artists, You Know, You Spend Their Entire Lives Learning How To Play Music And Write Songs, And They Don't Really Know How The Music Business Works.

Though In Many Of Its Aspects This Visible World Seems Formed In Love, The Invisible Spheres Were Formed In Fright.

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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.

Honestly, The Most Vulnerable Part Of My Life Is Probably Just Honest Expression, As Cliché As That Might Sound.

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.

I Think That, For A Lot Of Us, The Closer We Get To Showing People Who We Really Are, That's Where We Feel The Most Uncomfortable, The Most Vulnerable. But It's Also Where The Healthiest Growth Comes From. Like When I Can Really Open Myself Up To Someone And Show Someone Who I Really Am, It's Amazing When It Happens.

I've Been Friends With Madonna For Ever. In Fact She Was At My 3rd Solo Performance In 1990, And There Were Only 10 People In The Audience.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

To Paraphrase Paul From The New Testament, He Has A Great Soliloquy About Love, Where He's Basically Saying, If I've Figured Out The Secrets Of The Universe But I Don't Have Love, Figuring Out The Secrets Of Universe Means Nothing.

To Me, One Of The Easiest Ways Of Addressing Climate Change And Potentially Remedying Climate Change Is To Stop Subsidizing Animal Agriculture.

Lord, I Want To Be Up In My Heart.

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

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

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 Sort Of Use As My Guiding Principle That Show The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin. Whenever Possible, Do The Stupid Thing.

Guiding Principles

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.

David Lynch Is My Friend, And I Love His Movies And His Art And His Music. Few Things Make Me Happier Than Working With Him.

The Progressive Movement Needs More Crazy And Amoral/immoral Right-wing Politicians And Pundits Like Tom Delay And Newt Gingrich And Ann Coulter And Sean Hannity.

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.

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

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 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.

For Years, My Mom Dated A Man Who Was Really Active In The Baptist Church In The Town Next To The Town I Grew Up In, And So He Used To Drag Me To These Baptist Church Services That Lasted Forever. I Remember That I Didn't Like The Church Services, But I Really Liked The Music.

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

It's Almost Like A Sign Of Mental Illness To Base Your Self-worth On The Opinions Of Complete Strangers, You Know?

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.

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.

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.

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

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

I Like My Coffee Like I Like My Romantic Partners: Cold And Bitter And Prone To Giving Me Anxiety Attacks.

I Feel Like Once The Song Is Done, You Put It Out There And If People Want To Do Bizarre Remixes, If People Want To Make Strange Videos, Great. You Know, Like Chaos Theory Applied To The Music Business.

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!

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

When You're Signed To A Big Label You're Always In The Position Of Convincing Them, Especially Now Because Labels Are Barely Keeping The Lights On, So Getting Them To Spend A Little Bit Of Money Is Really Hard.

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.

I've Worked With All Sorts Of Random People - Everybody From Metallica To Britney Spears To Ozzy Osbourne To Michael Jackson To The Beastie Boys. I've Got A Really Strange Cv. It's Interesting - I Work With A Lot Of These Disparate, Different People To Learn What It's Like To Work With Random People.

Sometimes I Love The Marriage Of Art And Commerce; I Love Donna Summer; I Like The Rolling Stones.

I'd Strike The Sun If It Insulted Me.

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

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.

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.

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 Thought That My Life Would Be Spent Working In A Bookstore, Teaching Community College, And Making Music In My Spare Time That No One Would Be Willing To Listen To.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

No One Wants To Be Hated, In Public, By Lots Of People.

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.

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.

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

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.

For His Sake I'm Sorry That Robert Johnson Sold His Soul To The Devil, But For Our Sake And The Sake Of Music I'm Glad He Did.

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.

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.

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.

My Job Of Being A Musician In A Recording Studio Has Nothing To Do With Being A Musician Being On Tour Performing.

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.

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...'

Musicians, Actors, Writers - We're All Neurotic, Odd People Who've Lucked Into Accidental Careers. So I Just Don't Like Being Around Public Figures With That Sense Of Entitlement, It Just Seems Unhealthy, And It Strips So Much Potential For Them To Develop As A Human Being.

I Remember I Went To Berlin Right After The Wall Came Down. I First Went To East Berlin, And All The Buildings Were Old And Falling Down, And Now When You Go Back To Berlin, You Know You're In The East Because All The Buildings Are Brand New And Very Tall.

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.

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.

I've Dated Attractive People And I Don't Find A Correlation Between Amorous Enthusiasm And Beauty And Public Figure Status.

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.

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.

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

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.

More Often Than Not, Whenever Gossip Has Been Written About Me, The Gossip Is More Interesting Than The Reality. I Know Some Public Figures Hate Gossip, But Personally I Like It Because It Makes My Life Sound More Glamorous And Interesting Than It Really Is.

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

What I Love About Making Albums In The 21st Century Is That So Few People Buy Albums! I Can Make An Album Without Any Commercial Concerns Whatsoever.

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.

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.

You Could Spend Every Waking Moment Online And Still Only Experience One-trillionth Of What's Out There. I Find That A Little Overwhelming.

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.

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.

I'm Pretty Much A Realist. There's A Certain Age You Get To When You're Not Really Going To Be Shown Anymore.

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.

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

I Think A Lot Of Self-importance Is A Product Of Fear. And Fear, Living In Sort Of An Un-self-examined Fear-based Life, Tends To Lead To Narcissism And Self-importance.

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.

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.

Since I Stopped Drinking My Love Life Has Taken A Really Serious Hit. Romantic Encounters That Seemed Like A Really Good Idea At Three O'clock In The Morning On The Lower East Side? Less So In Sobriety.

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.'

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

I Don't Sleep Very Well When I Travel. And As A Result, I Tend To Be Awake In Cities When Everyone Else Is Asleep.

I Remember New York In The '80s As A Place With Vacant Lots That Would Eventually Give Over To Nature. Weeds Would Grow Up, Squirrels Would Move In. That Entropy Is Gone Now. It's Too Expensive To Let A Vacant Lot Go Natural.

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.

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

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

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

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

A Lot Of People Have Realized That A Good Spiritual Practice And A Good Meditation Practice Have Real Benefit. It’s Not Just Something Nice To Do To Make The Universe Happy.

I Have No Perspective As Regards My Work. One Reason I Put Out Records And Books Is People Respond To It, And It Enables You To Actually See The Work More Clearly. It's A Form Of Therapy For Me. Sometimes Abusive Therapy.

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

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.

In A Perfect World, I Would Be 6-foot-3 And Have A Perfect Head Of Hair And Look Like Orlando Bloom.

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