I feel really personally connected to all of the songs, so stepping back is really hard.

I'm really not into the idea of just faking songs with a synthesizer. That just isn't the music I'm making at all.

You're always trying to find new stuff and new inspiration. If you don't really push and you don't try something that feels exciting, then it's not worth doing.

Traveling makes a vacation lose all appeal. You would never want to take the family to a European city. You travel a lot, but it's a job.

You feel like half of your life is a vacation when you go to these Barcelona music festivals and have all day to sound check or go to the pool.

When you spend your whole life traveling it does get really tedious and exhausting.

I never want to travel while I'm on vacation anymore. The only vacations I want to take now are ones where I just go and sit somewhere.

When you're in your twenties you always think that 30 is a long ways off, and maybe you'll have things in line when you hit that number - maybe own a house or be married.

When I finally got to 30, I'll admit that there was a little anxiety, but at the same time I actually really liked it.

I think I got interested in singing without being too over-the-top. I was more calmly singing the words - which I thought had really come a long way. I thought they were worth singing clearly.

I write songs now I look at my strengths and I start there. In The Walkmen, we'd start with the live stuff.

In theory it was, around now, Literature. Susan hated Literature. She'd much prefer to read a good book.

Taking personal accountability is a beautiful thing because it gives us complete control of our destinies.

Your smile is a messenger of your good will.

I thank Marc Jacobs so much for giving me the opportunity to design a shoe for Louis Vuitton, but the thing that broke my heart most was when they said, 'You're finished. The shoe's finished.'

Strive for simplicity. You never have to fix what you leave out.

Music is the very cement that has not just held the black community together but holds black selves together in a fundamental sense.

Ha, but my life is a box of wormgears.

In a city where most of the wealth is controlled by a small few, certain things are overlooked, particularly when it comes to the assertion of privilege.

Music always stimulates my imagination. When I'm writing I usually have some Baroque music on low in the background chamber music by Bach, Telemann, and the like.

And only the sure of foot can give a hand to him who stumbles.