People assume that the meaning of a song is vested in the lyrics. To me, that has never been the case. There are very few songs that I can think of where I remember the words.

I have lived in countries that were coming out of conflict: Ireland, South Africa, the Czech republic. People there are overflowing with energy.

Ambient music must be as ignorable as it is interesting.

Stop thinking about art works as objects, and start thinking about them as triggers for experiences.

The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band

I had wanted a tape recorder since I was tiny. I thought it was a magic thing. I never got one until just before I went to art school.

My guitar only has five strings 'cause the top one broke and I decided not to put it back on: when I play chords I only play bar chords, and the top one always used to cut me there.

Lyrics are always misleading because they make people think that that's what the music is about.

Everything is an experiment until it has a deadline. That gives it a destination, context, and a reason.

Well, I am a dilettante. It's only in England that dilettantism is considered a bad thing. In other countries it's called interdisciplinary research.

Ambient Music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting.

The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.

If one is going to change things, one has to make a fuss and catch the eye of the world.

sometimes people think they're above the laws the rest of us live by. they're blind to their own imperfections.

It is not enough for theory to describe and analyze, it must itself be an event in the universe it describes.

Intellectual food is like any other; it is pleasanter and more beneficial to take it with a spoon than a shovel.

The light of love drives away the darkness of guilt.

It's not enough simply to record the way people actually talk. The dialogue must be concentrated, shaped, dramatically moving, in a way that real-life conversation seldom is.

We all give ourselves a lot of leeway, but we want consistency from other people.

Greatness begins beyond your comfort zone.

I try, and I think I succeed, in making my readers feel sorry for my psychopaths, because I do.