"That's the one for my tombstone... Here lies David Byrne. Why the big suit?"

"Performing is a thing in itself, a distinct skill, different from making recordings. And for those who can do it, it's a way to make a living."

"Most of our lives aren't that exciting, but the drama is still going on in the small details."

"I've noticed a lot of younger artists have less fear of doing different sorts of things, whether it's various types of music, or gallery artists moving between video and sculpture and drawing."

"I'm very much into making lists and breaking things apart into categories."

"Yeah, I like to keep myself interested - I'll kind of throw myself into some area that I don't completely know or understand, that I'm not adept at, so I'm forced to swim in order to stay afloat. There's a good feeling that comes from that."

"I've made money, and I've been ripped off. I've had creative freedom, and I've been pressured to make hits. I have dealt with diva behavior from crazy musicians, and I have seen genius records by wonderful artists get completely ignored. I love music. I always will."

"I'm proud of 'Stop Making Sense,' but it's a little bit of an albatross; I can't compete with it, but I can't ignore it either."

"With music, you often don't have to translate it. It just affects you, and you don't know why."

"Software constraints are only confining if you use them for what they're intended to be used for."

"Life tends to be an accumulation of a lot of mundane decisions, which often gets ignored."

"I found music to be the therapy of choice. I guess it is for a lot of people."

"The voting booth joint is a great leveler; the whole neighborhood - rich, poor, old, young, decrepit and spunky - they all turn out in one day."

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

"I wanted to be a secret agent and an astronaut, preferably at the same time."

"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."

"I certainly agree that putting everything into little genres is counterproductive. You're not going to get too many surprises if you only focus on the stuff that fits inside the box that you know."

"Analysis is like a lobotomy. Who wants to have all their edges shaved off?"

"I knew I wanted to have a doll of myself on the cover. I thought, I wanna see myself as a Ken doll."

"Real beauty knocks you a little bit off kilter."

"That's the thing about pictures: they seduce you."

"You create a community with music, not just at concerts but by talking about it with your friends."

"PowerPoint may not be of any use for you in a presentation, but it may liberate you in another way, an artistic way. Who knows."

"Do I wear a helmet? Ugh. I do when I'm riding through a precarious part of town, meaning Midtown traffic. But when I'm riding on secure protected lanes or on the paths that run along the Hudson or through Central Park - no, I don't wear the dreaded helmet then."