I describe things in terms of body movements. I dance a bit to describe what sort of movement it ought to make, and that's a good way of talking to musicians. Particularly bass players.

I have lived in countries that were coming out of conflict: Ireland, South Africa, the Czech republic. People there are overflowing with energy.

Ambient music must be as ignorable as it is interesting.

Stop thinking about art works as objects, and start thinking about them as triggers for experiences.

The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band

I had wanted a tape recorder since I was tiny. I thought it was a magic thing. I never got one until just before I went to art school.

My guitar only has five strings 'cause the top one broke and I decided not to put it back on: when I play chords I only play bar chords, and the top one always used to cut me there.

Lyrics are always misleading because they make people think that that's what the music is about.

Everything is an experiment until it has a deadline. That gives it a destination, context, and a reason.

Well, I am a dilettante. It's only in England that dilettantism is considered a bad thing. In other countries it's called interdisciplinary research.

Ambient Music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting.

With conscious effort, you can be a reader.

End your journey well. Don’t waste your life, and don’t be satisfied with anything less than God’s plan.

It was impossible to quarrel with words, whose tremulous inequality showed indisposition so plainly.

It is only in alert silence that truth can be.

Although the troops have struck us, we throw it all behind and are glad to meet you in peace and friendship.

Some people write to please, to soothe, to console. Others to provoke, to challenge, to exasperate and infuriate. I've always found the second approach the more pleasing.

For with slight efforts how should we obtain great results? It is foolish even to desire it.

None but great men are capable of having great flaws.

Learn the lesson of your pain

I have learned that keeping my personal life outside of work is the easier, richer way to work.