Latest Cass McCombs Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I think a master craftsman is someone who is unpretentious. He has a physical object in front of him and, while he works with a higher aim, he doesn't let his personality get in the way of his art. It's simply about the task at hand and to make it as functional and necessary to the world as he can.

  Cass McCombs

  Art, Thinking, Personality

  Source: pitchfork.com

• I do like the word timeless. That's a great word.

  Cass McCombs

  Timeless

  Source: pitchfork.com

• To me, craft work is the ultimate. Maybe I got this idea from the autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, who was employed as a sculptor to the state and church, making coins and things. While he admired Michelangelo, he also made fun of his spiritual angst with art.

  Cass McCombs

  Spiritual, Art, Fun

  Source: pitchfork.com

• With death comes a choice. And death is a choice.

  Cass McCombs

  Choices

  Source: pitchfork.com

• I don't know about timeless. I actually think most of what I do is completely modern, but universally modern. Who decides what timeless even means? Are the things that we consider timeless now going to, in fact, be considered timeless in 300 years? Probably not.

  Cass McCombs

  Mean, Thinking, Modern

  Source: pitchfork.com

• Thank god we don't know a lot about William Shakespeare or Moses or Homer or Lautréamont. These are the best guys we got, and their art is powerful because they're mysterious. Once biographical information contaminates your consciousness, it's impossible to erase it and look at someone's work the same way again.

  Cass McCombs

  Art, Powerful, Guy

  Source: pitchfork.com

• Elvis Presley wore a Star of David and a cross around his neck and, when someone asked him about it, he said, "It makes me think." I love that quote. It's simple. It's beautiful. It's true.

  Cass McCombs

  Beautiful, Simple, Thinking

  Source: pitchfork.com

• All these biopics and biographies and people gossiping about so-and-so's drug abuse or who's sleeping with who, it's just a bunch of nonsense.

  Cass McCombs

  Sleep, People, Drug

  Source: pitchfork.com

• Bringing the individual into it music only distracts from the universal and makes it trivial. And then it's easy to wash your hands of it because you might not be from their background, or you might disagree with their personal perspective. So you discount it and go back into your corner instead of coming out and engaging with everything.

  Cass McCombs

  Perspective, Easy, Individual

  Source: pitchfork.com

• Making music and art is about expressing something that's universally human, maybe even beyond human, at best. To make it about the artist and to dwell upon biographical information can only make it singular, and I am really, really disgusted by that.

  Cass McCombs

  Art, Artist, Disgusted

  Source: pitchfork.com

• Beggars can't be choosers. We don't have all the money in the world. So anyone who wants to be in the band and be broke - that's their own death wish.

  Cass McCombs

  Wish, World, Broke

  Source: pitchfork.com

• I took piano lessons when I was a little kid, but even before that, you're singing in the classroom and wherever. Gosh, children are always singing. But I took music lessons, some choir and things like that at school. I learned how to play the guitar when I was about 13... ancient history.

  Cass McCombs

  Children, School, Kids

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I don't like the word "happy." I wouldn't want to use it that context. I enjoy writing songs, it's a really good challenge, it tickles me. It's a wonderful way to engage with your surroundings, through poetry and songs.

  Cass McCombs

  Song, Writing, Challenges

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• It doesn't mean that I'm overly enthusiastic about much music. Except the people that really touch me. It has to touch me, it has to grab a hold of me, I'm not looking for anything in particular.

  Cass McCombs

  Mean, People, Enthusiastic

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I don't think music is my job - I don't think about it that way, because I don't really get paid. There's not paycheck at the end; it's more of a "whatever is left over" kind of situation. Also, it keeps me from thinking about my creativity as a business, which it is not. It should remain pure; that's one of the reasons I made music in the first place.

  Cass McCombs

  Creativity, Thinking, Kind

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I think it's worthwhile to expand your comfort level and just do something awful. I wasn't trying to make music for money.

  Cass McCombs

  Thinking, Trying, Comfort

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I miss working. It's real, you know? But I don't know anything but songwriting, and I don't even know that. I didn't go to school; the only thing I know how to do is this. The only thing that I know is that I know nothing.

  Cass McCombs

  Real, School, Missing

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I don't have a problem doing interviews. It's not punishment. There's things about it that I don't like. No one else is really saying these kinds of things, so someone has to. I don't think that it's the most humbled thing to talk about yourself for hours and hours and hours.

  Cass McCombs

  Thinking, Kind, Problem

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• This is a transitory world, we're all spirits just looking for love and finding it, and holding on. Even if it's a moment it's true love, true love doesn't mean that it goes on for eternity. Eternity is a terrible concept.

  Cass McCombs

  Mean, Looking For Love, World

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I don't think anyone knows anything and I don't trust people who say that they do. Don't give me a plan, give me action.

  Cass McCombs

  Thinking, Giving, People

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• It's not like that when you're a songwriter - songwriters aren't like pulp writers or journalists, even. You just follow the muse. It's called muse-ic. Whenever the muse decides to bestow her inspiration on the songwriter, then the song is born.

  Cass McCombs

  Song, Inspiration, Muse

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• That's the thing about inspiration, it just smacks you upside the head, you can't plan for it. It comes like a stranger in the night; you never know when it's going to come or leave, and you just have to deal with the in-between moments because there's nothing you can really do about it.

  Cass McCombs

  Inspiration, Night, Stranger

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I love being lost! I don't need to control anything. Even with romantic partnerships, I don't need to control anyone. I think I have some very meaningful relationships with people, we all do. At the same time, I recognize that everyone is following their own heart; there's been people who have left my life and I don't have a problem with that.

  Cass McCombs

  Meaningful, Heart, Love Is

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I don't really write for an album. I just write songs whenever I feel like it, whenever they come to me. It's all a complete accident.

  Cass McCombs

  Song, Writing

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• The writing of the record didn't take long, because I just have a huge stack of papers and I just pluck from the stack. It took a long time because it's very expensive to make records; in fact, I think it's a complete rip-off.

  Cass McCombs

  Writing, Thinking, Long

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com