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I have a very addictive personality, so I'm even careful about wanting more of anything than I need - even chocolate.
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There isn't an amount of money you could offer me to do reality TV. I would rather get my job back on the building site. Or I could own a construction business. Maybe I could retire to my house in Long Island and take up painting, like Captain Beefheart. A crazy recluse: I like that idea.
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Music is really all about experimentation and lots of trial and error. It's just mind-numbingly boring until you hit on something that works well.
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Our music over the years has been very cinematic. It's surprising we never really got into film soundtracks.
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There are Depeche Mode parties around the world where people listen to our music all night long. The more remixes we can give them, the more interesting those nights have got to be.
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The whole 'serious artist' thing is very damaging. The powers that be will steer you towards your own demise. One thing I've learned is that it's not very glamourous, and my problems are no different from anybody else's.
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If you took music out of my life, I don't know what I'd do. It's the one thing that I have a real passion for.
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Let me make the songs of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws.
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I have the urge to still be part of the world, the universe, of life. Through music I have the feeling that I come a little closer to that.
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Joy comes from places you least expect it. It's usually the simple things, like watching my son play basketball or going through Central Park when the blossoms are blooming.
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I loathe the idea of going onstage in a T-shirt and jeans.
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You've got to put interesting people around you; you've got to work with people who are gonna inspire you to take the songs you've written into a completely different direction, because there's nothing more boring than going to the studio and predictably knowing what is going to happen.
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I do a cover of a Velvet Underground song, and they were one of the most important bands, for me.
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I lead two totally separate lives. There are times when I have to slip into rock star mode.
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If you stick around long enough, you're going to become fashionable eventually.
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If you ask me who the members of the Rolling Stones or Led Zep or the Clash were, I'd be able to tell you every member. But I couldn't name a single member of Arctic Monkeys.
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When I write a song, I always start on acoustic guitar, because that's a good test of a song, when it's really open and bare. You can often mislead yourself if you start with computers and samples and programming because you can disguise a bad song.
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I don't know if it's cool to say this anymore, but I grew up listening to Gary Glitter. A majority of his songs were in that shuffle-blues beat, and I think that's probably why I tend to write like that.
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People are People still gets played to death on '80s stations. It was our first big break in America. It's not exactly my favorite song.
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All of my kids are into music. My older daughter plays guitar, piano, sings. My young son, he sings.
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I don't think I've ever tried to be anything other than a weirdo.
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When you first sit down to write the first song, until you've maybe got three or four under your belt, it's always, to me, like a mountain to climb. You look at that one blank piece of paper and you think, `God, how many songs do I have to write here?' It always feels like pressure.
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If you go into the eastern bloc countries we are huge, and in Russia. Maybe there is something about the depressing nature of our music and lyrics that some people find an affinity with.
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Songwriting is a mysterious art. When I sit down to write a song, the end result should be mysterious and have this dark quality.