“When we watch, when we listen, we’re not getting away from the world. We’re actually digging in.” – pg. 15
“Making someone laugh is a kind of connection. So is laughing together with other people. So is realizing that other people are amused at or inspired by or curious about the same things you are.” – pg. 63
“When you watch a movie, what you’re looking for on a subconscious level is a piece of yourself to be reflected at you.” – pg. 75
“I don’t want to compete, I want to connect.” – pg. 90
“You connect with people when you’re authentic – when you do things the way that comes naturally.” – pg. 97
“I’m constantly trying to understand who I am so that I can turn the inspiration in my heart into something tangible, into a feeling that can be experienced by someone else.” – pg. 117
“You have to work with people who know how to work hard, and you have to work harder than everyone else.” – pg. 117
“If you want to do something, if you want to make something, if you want to create something, I’ve learned that you can’t be afraid to do it wrong.” – pg. 117
“It takes a lot of hard work to make it look easy.” – pg. 117
“One thing I’ve learned is that I have to let the feelings or ideas that inspire me become what they want to be.” – pg. 125
“You have to understand what makes it resonate.” – pg. 126
“Like Miles Davis said, ‘It’s not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t play.’ It’s the space between the notes that makes the music.” – pg. 135
“I said, ‘This is why [SexyBack is] going to work. It doesn’t sound like anybody. But it sounds like somebody.’ […] I wanted people to say those words, and feel like they were whoever that character was in that song, however they imagine him to be.” – pg. 140
“The coolest people are the ones who are doing something they’re excited about.” – pg. 164
“I would like to stay in a place where I don’t know exactly what I am, or what I am doing, because I would get to continually discover myself within that.” – pg. 211
“They want to pin you down so they can understand you. They want you to make it easy for them. They want you to walk in a straight line. I say, walk your own line.” – pg. 212
“If I could give a young artist advice about their influences, it would be this: Embrace them.” – pg. 228
“No matter what gets thrown at you, you catch it. You learn from it. And you figure out how to throw it back.” – pg. 228
“As I hit twenty-six and twenty-seven and twenty-eight, I was three different people within those years.” – pg. 234
“I used to think we want to be loved for what we are, but maybe more now, I think we want to be loved for what we aren’t. I think we want to be loved for all our fucked up shit.” – pg. 241
“Everything you’re doing as an adult is to try to heal whatever you’ve built up from our childhood.” – pg. 276
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