A lot of artists write about the same things their whole career.

The Flaming Lips have been on Warner Bros. forever, and certainly everything I heard growing up was on a major label in some way, from the Cure to Radiohead to Bjork.

Being in a rock band, I feel a certain responsibility to have a weird haircut. I mean, who else gets to do that?

Music is made by individuals. Some artists will be very politically overt in their songs, some will be more subtle. You have to be true to yourself, true to your nature.

The idea of dancing to bad house music is something I could never get behind.

I think of hip hop as a mass media, radio, MTV thing. It’s been extremely relevant over the last 10 years and rock music is just not anymore—-a tear rolls down my cheek as I say that.

Whenever you do anything or say anything, you're opening yourself up to criticism. But that's okay.

What I miss [about church] is being forced to be in community with people that aren't the same as me.

I think filmmakers all secretly wanna be musicians and all musicians secretly wanna be filmmakers.

The film Black Orpheus is one of my favorite films of all time, which is set in Carnival in Brazil.

I don't think the emotional quality is the defining quality of the music but it's definitely something that people have picked up on a lot

He remembered his mother's love for him, and his family's, and his friends', and the enemy's intention to kill him seemed impossible.

My particular aesthetic of light and color and design wouldn't change as a result of working with computer graphics rather than with slit scan or miniatures.

Kindness can change the lives of people.

The best part of aging in this business is losing that obsession about work and being able to spend a little more time with family.

It's true that most people find it far more comfortable to trust an authority than to have their faith questioned.

The great problem with government is that it never goes bankrupt.

People live with the illusion that we have a democratic system, but it's only the outward form of one. In reality we live in a plutocracy, a government of the rich.

I'm always curious, but I'm learning things I never thought I'd learn. I get to travel to places I never thought I'd go.

If honesty was like water that people couldn't live without it, the world which became heavier due to the endless lies would be just light like a feather!

Strange indeed is the attraction of the forest for the minds of men.