Quotes by David Byrne

• That's the one for my tombstone... Here lies David Byrne. Why the big suit?
• I'm guarded; I don't talk much.
• It didn't even occur to me that I'm the last person in the world who should play salsa or Brazilian music.
• It's not always been a happy marriage. I guess I wanted a quick fix.
• My favorite time of day is to get up and eat leftovers from dinner, especially spicy food.
• I've been in beautiful landscapes where one is tempted to whip out a camera and take a picture. I've learned to resist that.
• Punk was defined by an attitude rather than a musical style.
• Real beauty knocks you a little bit off kilter.
• I'm afraid that reason will triumph and that the world will become a place where anyone who doesn't fit that will become unnecessary.
• Television sounded really different than the Ramones sounded really different than us sounded really different than Blondie sounded really different than the Sex Pistols.
• I never listen to the radio unless I rent a car.
• That's the thing about pictures: they seduce you.
• The Heads were the only band on that scene that had a groove.
• The true face of smoking is disease, death and horror - not the glamour and sophistication the pushers in the tobacco industry try to portray.
• To shake your rump is to be environmentally aware.
• Sometimes it's a form of love just to talk to somebody that you have nothing in common with and still be fascinated by their presence.
• I didn't have any agenda or plan when I started writing stuff.
• When we started, a lot of bands sounded really different from one another.
• All you needed was a couple of instruments and a few chords and you could be on an indie label.
• Analysis is like a lobotomy. Who wants to have all their edges shaved off?
• Architecture theory is very interesting.
• Everything's intentional. It's just filling in the dots.
• Frank Lloyd Wright... his things were beautiful but not very functional.
• I subscribe to the myth that an artist's creativity comes from torment. Once that's fixed, what do you draw on?
• I couldn't talk to people face to face, so I got on stage and started screaming and squealing and twitching.
• I'm afraid that everything will get homogenized and be the same.
• I find rebellion packaged by a major corporation a little hard to take seriously.
• I knew I wanted to have a doll of myself on the cover. I thought, I wanna see myself as a Ken doll.
• I like to combine the dramatic emotional warmth of strings with the grooves and body business of drums and bass.
• I read the NY Times but I don't trust all of it.
• I try never to wear my own clothes, I pretend I'm someone else.
• I wanted to be a secret agent and an astronaut, preferably at the same time.
• I'd like to be known for more than being the guy in the big suit.
• I couldn't take pictures of green rolling hills.
• To some extent I happily don't know what I'm doing. I feel that it's an artist's responsibility to trust that.