David Byrne

Why not invest in the future of music, instead of building fortresses to preserve its past?

I don't listen to the radio very much, but that could be because I don't have a car.

I never listen to the radio unless I rent a car.

I'm not suggesting people abandon musical instruments and start playing their cars and apartments, but I do think the reign of music as a commodity made only by professionals might be winding down.

There's a certain amount of freedom involved in cycling: you're self-propelled and decide exactly where to go. If you see something that catches your eye to the left, you can veer off there, which isn't so easy in a car, and you can't cover as much ground walking.

You can know or not know how a car runs and still enjoy riding in a car.

On a bike, being just slightly above pedestrian and car eye level, one gets a perfect view of the goings-on in one's own town.

Real beauty knocks you a little bit off kilter.

I read the NY Times but I don't trust all of it.

To some extent I happily don't know what I'm doing. I feel that it's an artist's responsibility to trust that.

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.

With pop music, the format dictates the form to a big degree. Just think of the pop single. It has endured as a form even in the download age because bands conform to a strict format, and work, often very productively, within the parameters.

The true face of smoking is disease, death and horror - not the glamour and sophistication the pushers in the tobacco industry try to portray.

It's a fundamental, social attitude that the 1% supports symphonies and operas and doesn't support Johnny learning to program hip-hop beats. When I put it like that, it sounds like, 'Well, yeah,' but you start to think, 'Why not, though?' What makes one more valuable than another?

Punk was defined by an attitude rather than a musical style.

I like to combine the dramatic emotional warmth of strings with the grooves and body business of drums and bass.

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 and performative aspect has slipped into invisibility.