-
For me, moving is always a big opportunity. It's just a enough of a shift in outlook that every time I move, it seems to open something up.
John Darnielle -
I hang out and sign records for an hour or two hours every night, and I like to hear as many people's stories as I can, because if somebody wants to share their story with me, I want to honor that.
John Darnielle
-
I think all writing is necessarily autobiographical to a greater or lesser extent, and the less it tries to be confessional, the more likely it is that you're somehow sneaking the things you need to say in there.
John Darnielle -
I think, taking too long to work on a record, you sort of lose some of the feeling, so I write as fast as I can; it's just this manic phase where I'm by myself and or on tour, and I write, and I write.
John Darnielle -
It usually happens that I have multiple different projects going on at once, and one can be referencing the other.
John Darnielle -
Opera combines pretty basic theater and poetry, but the storyline itself is actually quite poetic and, after some digital research, taking that actual content and seeing it as undeniably poetic.
John Darnielle -
I've written a lot about southern California, but I don't use the same characters. Leave the people in the songs in the songs, is my philosophy.
John Darnielle -
I got a promo of 'Nichts Muss' in what would have been 2002 or 2003 and fell totally in love with it after listening to it on an airplane that took me to Australia via Taipei and Kuala Lumpur.
John Darnielle
-
I used to break three or four strings a night, and the show would be over because I didn't know how to change the strings.
John Darnielle -
My favorite movies are gory horror films. I love Faulkner. I wanted to see the most painful things possible.
John Darnielle -
I was writing poetry, and the Mountain Goats was an outgrowth of that.
John Darnielle -
Life is entirely unthinkable without any of the creative arts, and they're all a continuum - the force in question is creativity, not its mode of expression.
John Darnielle -
When you're born into a showbiz family, the deck is stacked against you.
John Darnielle -
I watched 'Fame,' and I just love the choreography. It just gives me a place to be in another zone.
John Darnielle
-
People do all sorts of things impulsively and follow those impulses into strange places.
John Darnielle -
Sometimes I do 'So Desperate' solo in the middle of the set. I really love to sing that song.
John Darnielle -
People like to say how much they like stuff, but with 'The Sunset Tree,' people shared stories about what it meant for them. And that stuff's so humbling and amazing.
John Darnielle -
I write for a lot of places, so I'm on a lot of promo lists.
John Darnielle -
I don't have a favorite drink. I don't do favorites of anything, practically.
John Darnielle -
Wrestlers give their bodies to their work. I don't know if I like the word 'crazy' here. What I would say is there are people who have a different relationship to their bodies than most people.
John Darnielle
-
You always feel like your 18-year-old self in some sense. And that's what walking through New York on a June evening feels like - you feel like it's Friday, and you're 17 years old.
John Darnielle -
Sometimes I'll write without the guitar or the piano, but most of the time I'll be playing and just improvising some words. And when I get something that sounds good, a line with a story in it, I'll try and tease it out and figure out where the story is going.
John Darnielle -
I am permanently a student of people who make great songs, but besides sort of learning by absorption, I just love listening to music, hearing what's going on, hearing new things or new old things.
John Darnielle -
My songs tend to sprint toward some epiphany and then explode.
John Darnielle