Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I think 'cool' is overrated.
Life takes turns. There are forks in the road.
We've been slighted in the press for being heartfelt.
Critics are critics: their job is to find things wrong with people.
I kind of spooked myself about getting older. It's not that bad really.
You look at a song like 'Lightning Crashes,' and it's just so universal.
Practicing love is a difficult thing to do. It's much easier to get angry.
I believe that rock and roll can really make a huge impact on people's lives.
I've never had trouble finding inspiration for new songs, no matter what I'm doing.
I consider our music a catalyst, something that might spark a thought or a question.
The Web has incredible potential for an artist who keeps in touch with millions of people.
Music, in its clearest and simplest form, can be a catalyst to thought, but that's about it.
Individuals have to find a place to experience a profundity of feeling, and art is a means to that.
What I think shines through for us is that we have a real respect for the music and a real reverence.
I remember people telling me that at 5 1/2 minutes long, 'Lightning Crashes' would never be a hit song.
I am an Alanis Morissette fan. I think that she has a fantastic voice, and I would love to sing with her someday.
We've never been satisfied with just making 'me' music. What we're doing is trying to go to a place of some reverence.
To make music that means something, you kind of have to drop the cool. You have to be prepared and willing to be uncool.
I think that every band, whether they admit it or not, is going out there to succeed. I've always worn that on my sleeve.
We came from a small town where there was no music scene or no other bands, and we decided to put ours together and go for it.
If there is a doctrine, a message behind Live, it's just that wordless intensity that doesn't necessarily have to mean anything.
I have always been cursed or blessed with this inability to hide behind anything and to just say exactly what I am experiencing.
Part of being an artist is that you want to express yourself to as many people as possible. But you don't want to exclude anyone.
I would have to recommend the chorus of 'Lightning Crashes' for just about everyone that needs a little something, a little comeback.
We've never been your traditional rock-pop band. Lyrically, I've always had more of an interest in spirituality and that kind of thing.
With every kid, there has just been a deepening of my humanity, because there's no more of a feet-on-the-ground moment than having a child.
I grew up in an area that was the typical city that was a racially divided and economically segregated place. And it had a big influence on me.
I was buddies with Dennis Rodman back in the day; actually, I am still buddies with him, and so I have gone to a lot of games and always enjoyed it.
I love Peter Gabriel, and I've come so close to working with him a few times. We were on a movie soundtrack together, but we didn't actually write together.
I think the message of the Live/Counting Crows tour is that, aside from what's going on trendwise, if you dig a little, you can always find something to inspire you.
Arenas, to me, and especially sheds, are really great venues. You get that sea of humanity, but everybody can still see it and hear it. And that's really important to us.
All of my favorite artists who inspired me were never afraid to be uncool and never afraid to wear their hearts on their sleeves - no matter how much flak they took for it.
When you're 19, girlfriends are girlfriends. Then you start thinking about the rest of your life and stuff. I don't know; something happens with your glands. Your alimony gland.
When I was a kid, my aunt coached me a little bit for choir, and what she taught me actually stuck with me. She basically taught me to sing from my diaphragm and not from my throat.
I really don't do concept stuff very well. If I'm sitting thinking about what kind of song I want to write, within a few minutes, I'm kind of bored. It's just a personal thing for me.
Ever since we started, we've been trying to give people music that is pop music where you could just get into the melody and get into the performance of the band and be quite satisfied.
We don't want Offspring-itis, Green Day-itis: you know, that thing where bands are all over the place at once, getting everything at once - major airplay on radio, major airplay on MTV.
I've always been into asking the big questions; I'm the last guy out the door at closing time cuz I was sittin' around 'til the wee hours with the other ones who were asking the same things.
The message of 'The Distance To Here' is no secret. It is a message of love and an invitation to myself and to those who want to come along to ask the big questions and not feel uncool doing it.
I took a page out of the U2 book. They've always had a universal approach. Nobody doubts they're Christian, but there's an open door for everybody in any faith to consume the music at any level.
The place we go as a band is a sort of samadhi, intensely emotional and not bound by self-thinking. And lyrically, one of the goals is to suggest that something is going on beyond what you can see.
I've never allowed my specific personal practice or belief to be overtly integrated to the music. Because that's crossing the line into, 'We want you to think this.' And that's not what we're about.
I'll never forget the first concert I basically went to. Actually, Sonny and Cher was my first concert, but U2 was my first real concert. I was 17 and saw them at JFK Stadium and had really crappy seats.
Our success just flies in the face of critics or people who would rather that we just failed... because we didn't fit into the style of the times or our lyrics were too upfront or too earnest or whatever.
As a songwriter and a singer in a successful rock band, I have had the good fortune of being surrounded by incredible musicians, lots of wonderful production on both record and onstage, and plenty of volume!
With 'Mental Jewelry,' we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to get something happening. I think we lost some of the personality in the music. 'Throwing Copper''s mission was to begin to get some of that back.
All my favorite artists were pretty serious in the sense that their music was something I could sink my teeth into, from Peter Gabriel to U2 to these artists that made me want to read the lyrics and dig into it.
We've never been a band that gets up on stage and says, 'OK, we're going to play our entire new album.' Of course we want to introduce new music, but we also want to play the songs people want to sing along with.
From the very beginning, we were all a hundred and ten percent about the music, from the very early days when we could barely play our instruments, and we were just covering other people's songs when we were in high school.
Until you solve problems like fear individually, resolve why individuals feel the need to believe in whatever, there's really no point in organizations, in things that turn the world into a concept rather than an individual fact.