The biggest musical influence on me was my mum. We were both enraptured by music.

If people can finally recognize you on radio without being told who it is, thats what you aim for.

I had a feeling about what I wanted to say, and I wasn't really qualified to discuss real things out of America because I didn't grow up there.

I seem to attract and be attracted to very willful, fascinating people.

I'm not interested in trying to have people who might like other kinds of music follow me. I don't want to please them.

Growing up in public is a test, and not many people know how to do it.

Guitars have been the obsession of my life. I first picked one up at the age of four and Ive been a guitar junkie ever since.

Coming from a working-class background, where my father did manual labor, was a good grounding; I was obsessed with getting a job or getting out of the house at 15.

Joining Modest Mouse was just consistent with what I used to do as a teenager: I followed where I thought I would make some interesting music.

I never took fans for granted. I always assumed subconsciously that people who followed what I did were just people who were kind of like me.

Now chart music is a genre all of its own and it's slipped away from what I understand pop music as. It's pretty difficult to take; it clogs up the airwaves.

Effort is the unconstrained willingness to persevere through difficulty.

the abyss you stare into and that stares back at you is your reflection in the mirror - we all have it - that shadow self - that dark heart...

I'm proud of the fact that I stood up early and unequivocally in opposition to Bush's foreign policy. [...] That opposition hasn't changed.

People get so upset about lyrics, and they're probably totally cool with horror movies. That doesn't really make sense.

Hunger for excellence. Continuously seek inspiration to make your work better.

When you see people on the street, they're living in their phones. They aren't living where they are - they haven't got the energy of the past. And so it's something that needs to be reestablished.

She has the heart of a child, you know. Yeah, it's in a box beside her bed. - Kaia Skyhawk

How we love sequestering, where no pests are pestering.

I believe that the science of chemistry alone almost proves the existence of an intelligent creator.