A little renovation and reinvention is a positive thing.

Everybody was a democrat where we grew up. It was a blue-collar town and the democrats represented the working class and the unions. But very, very super-conservative Catholic, very proud immigrant community, very stoic.

I need a long, cold winter.

Yeah, I really like that band Deerhunter a lot.

There's always those few people that are like, 'Why don't you play any of the material off your first two records?' And I'm like, 'For the same reason that I don't play with G.I. Joe dolls anymore.' It's like, 'I'm a grown-up.' I wrote that music when I was a kid.

I have this morbid fascination with being completely alienated from everybody, and a lot of the time I really do feel that way.

I got really sick of playing just, like, 'Bop-bop-bop-bada-bop-bop-bada-rapa-pah.' Just playing that 190-beats-per-minute punk-rock songs, I didn't feel it anymore. And I always loved melody - when you looked back on those early records, there's always a hook buried in there somewhere.

The business of making music is changing so radically because of the Internet. It's become a lot more democratic in one respect, but in another respect there's no one left to guide and mentor young bands.

It's nice to see bands you could see at a bar finally get a chance.

I write about everyday people, everyday lives.

I think we'd sold a couple hundred records with our first album, maybe 1,000 at the most.

I wouldn't start writing songs like 'Name' all the time just because I thought that's what people wanted to hear. I'll write a song in the same vein because it's what I want to write.

I've taken a lot of crap. That's just the way life is. There are going to be writers who like you and writers who despise you.

I no longer feel the pressure of trying to write hits for the radio anymore.

I thought 'Gutterflower' was a really good record, but the album before that got so big that everyone expected us to go through that again.

When I'm afraid of something, I'm going at it twice as hard. I don't believe any fear can be conquered by avoiding it.

You can hate my band, I really don't care what your opinion is.

When KROQ played 'Name,' that was the turning point for us.

If people are spending money to hear us, they better go home happy.

I'm not trying to chase a radio hit, but at a certain time, you can't make the same album over and over.

As a society, when you have your mortality slapped in your face, it changes you.

I don't want people messing with my sound, my stuff.

I've written songs everywhere, and I think the place does matter.

Never in my life have I met bigger rockstars than Sugar Ray.

Having a collection of regrets when you hit your 40s is part of the deal.

We started the band when I was about 19 or 20. At that age, it would have been kind of hard to imagine a lot of the stuff that I've written. We were playing garage rock. I wanted to dash out three chords and scream. But if you do that for 20 years, what's the point?

I think people get a little resentful when they were there at the beginning, when they supported you when you played in front of nobody - which we still do. They get a little resentful when they have to share with new people. That's why I want to really look out for the people who've been with us from the beginning.

I hated high school.

We're living pretty interesting lives, we are traveling the world, we are going everywhere... it has been pretty cool! I'm so lucky to have been able to do all of that.

I think about my daughter when I'm doing stuff, and I want to see it through her eyes, and I want her to be proud of me, for what I do.

I don't want to raise someone who feels entitled.

In my family, my earliest memory of you get out of line is - BAM! It was a lot of corporal punishment. But you can't do that.

I had good parents, and even though they weren't around, they were always an influence on me.

Just call us the band that wouldn't die.

I like George Will, I don't agree with him particularly, but he's probably the smartest conservative out there.

I'm one of those guys who always has that kind of underlying anxiety kind of always creeping around in the background.

Every day somebody comes up to me and says, 'That song really helped me through a difficult time,' or 'That's me and my wife's song' or 'This song means something to me because of... ' It's humbling to hear that. You're something special in someone's life, even if it is for three minutes.

Everyone goes To L.A. to be noticed. I went there to be completely invisible.

I don't write a lot of fiction.

I feel a whole lot of gratitude for having hits.

I really love Death Cab.

A live show is something that can never ever be duplicated on a computer.

I'm a songwriter.

I love playing the songs that people love because it makes them happy.

We had always put ballads on all of our albums.

I'm one of these guys who always feel like the outsider, you know? I'm always longing to be part of something, you know?

I'm lucky I actually make a living making music.

Don't be afraid to play what you feel and what you think no matter what it is. If you play long enough, you start to move past your influences and find your own music.

John Shanks is probably the biggest workaholic I've ever met in my life.

I didn't think about having kids until like I was 48, 49 years old.