Donald Fagen Quotes

Popularity has everything to do with business and nothing to do with music.

It's great to know that our old stuff still sounds good to our fans, just as it's wonderful to think that we've turned a few people on to jazz over the years.

When you get a groove going, time flies.

What a beautiful world this will be What a glorious time to be free

What do you do with what you're given, and how do you transform it into something worthwhile?

Anthemic rock music is inherently fascist - anything intended to move huge masses of people is politically offensive to me.

I like it when songs develop in some way. Four minutes usually isn't enough time for something to develop musically.

We don't think of ourselves as being perfectionists, really. To us it's more about desperately trying to have it sound more or less OK.

I've never been comfortable as a lead performer, and I never wanted to be a singer, particularly.

As jazz fans, it was amusing for us to play jazz harmonies on these big, ugly electric guitars.

I have a critical nature, in the sense that when I look at something I often look for the flaws.

People are usually afraid to say what's on their mind.

My writing is really intuitive. As a kid, I went to school in New Jersey and hung out in New York, so the way kids used to talk got into our earlier songs.

I think of Steely Dan as being of its time, and it may be inseparable from its time.

My style is a little quirky. I can't play as fast as most professional jazz players.

I don't think you can escape the environment we live in now.

Randy Newman seemed like an even worse singer than me. I liked Ray Charles, Levi Stubbs, Jack Jones, Joe Tex, Wilson Pickett.