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

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.

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.

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

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

Every person is an island in the sea of humanity.

No difficulty can come to you (your way). If the mind wavers, difficulty will embrace you! That is all, the law of the universe is just this.

It isn't an idea until it’s created, irrespective of its result

This is courage in a man: to bear unflinchingly what heaven sends.

Never give up. For fifty years they said the horse was through. Now look at him - a status symbol.

My mother had gotten a job as a receptionist at a dancing school and had the idea that we should open our own dancing school; we did, and it prospered.

Adventure is the champagne of life, but I prefer my champagne and my adventures dry.

Foreign capital to build new cinemas will help modernize China's aging cinema infrastructure, attract Chinese consumers back into cinemas, and increase demand for U.S. films.

It is a woman's reason to say I will do such a thing because I will.

The worst man is the one who sees himself as the best.