Quotes by David Byrne

“Music written by teams makes the authorship of a piece indistinct. Could it be that when hearing a song written by a team, a listener can sense that they aren't hearing an expression of a solitary ...”

“Any kid will tell you that, yes, their music is both an escape and a survival mechanism, and that sometimes the music givesbthem hope and inspiration. It doesn't just placate and pacify.”

“There's always room for Jell-O”

“There are two conversations going on at the same time: the story and a conversation about how the story is being told.”

“A soap opera character on the bar TV says, "You killed him, you smothered him with doughnuts!" Another character, another scene--she is sitting in a room with a man and an elderly woman--the leas c...”

“Everyone was doing that in their own way, rejecting things and moving on. It's just a part of discovering who you are; it's nothing special.”

“There's a good chance that you might be inspired by ideas that originate outside of yourself.”

“One forgets that part of one's performance is one's history—or sometimes the lack of it. You're playing against what an audience knows, what they expect. This seems to be true of all performers; th...”

“I pick up a copy of Newsweek on the plane and immediately notice how biased, slanted, and opinionated all the U.S. newsmagazine articles are. Not that the Euro and British press aren't biased as we...”

“The radio was shouting at you, pleading with you, and seducing you.”

“But at times words can be a dangerous addition to music — they can pin it down. Words imply that the music is about what the words say, literally, and nothing more. If done poorly, they can destroy...”

“I also realized that there were lots of unacknowledged theater forms going on all around. Our lives are filled with performances that have been so woven into our daily routine that the artificial a...”

“Powerpoint presentations are a kind of theater, a kind of augmented stand-up. Too often it's a boring and tedious genre, and audiences are subjected to the bad as well as the good.”

“I really enjoy forgetting. When I first come to a place, I notice all the little details. I notice the way the sky looks. The color of white paper. The way people walk. Doorknobs. Everything. Then ...”

“I have something to say about the difference between American and European cities, but I forgot what it was. I have it written down at home somewhere.”

“The better the singer's voice is, the harder it is to believe what they're saying. So I turn my weaknesses into an advantage.”

“I try to write about small things. Paper, animals, a house…love is kind of big. I have written a love song, though. In this film, I sing it to a lamp.”

“Interviewer: If I gave you fifty dollars, right now, what would you do with it?David Byrne: I would get something to eat.”

“It's like 60 Minutes on acid.”

“It's not music you would use to get a girl into bed. If anything, you're going to frighten her off.”