David Byrne Quotes - Page 3

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In the future, women will have breasts all over. In the future, it will be a relief to find a place without culture. In the future, plates of food will have names and titles. In the future, we will all drive standing up. In the future, love will be taught on television and by listening to pop songs.

David Byrne

Song, Names, Listening

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Yeah, it's pretty hard not to be completely cynical these days.

David Byrne

Cynical, Yeah, These Days

Interview with Sean O'Neal, music.avclub.com. October 15, 2008.

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I couldn't take pictures of green rolling hills.

David Byrne

Rolling, Green, Hills

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...if photos can reproduce the world more perfectly than any painter, can capture an instant, a look, a gesture, then what makes a painting good anymore? Painting subverts this subversion of its traditional nature by redefining itself - art is idea, not simply skillful execution. So, a work can be crudely made, or even machine made - but it has to be practically and functionally useless.

David Byrne

Art, Ideas, Useless

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With pop music, the format dictates the form to a big degree. Just think of the pop single. It has endured as a form even in the download age because bands conform to a strict format, and work, often very productively, within the parameters.

David Byrne

Thinking, Age, Degrees

"David Byrne: 'It feels like the end of history in pop music'". Interview with Sean O'Hagan, www.theguardian.com. September 15, 2012.

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Everything's intentional. It's just filling in the dots.

David Byrne

Filling In, Dots, Filling

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Ninety percent of all music is always crap, and when too many people decide they're going to have guitar bands, then ninety percent of them are going to be crap. It's just a given law.

David Byrne

Guitar, Law, People

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By the time Talking Heads were starting, my feeling was to throw out everything and start from scratch onstage; strip it down to as close to zero as you can get and then you can make it yours.

David Byrne

Zero, Talking, Feelings

Interview with Mark Richardson, pitchfork.com. June 8, 2011.

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Metal buildings are the dream that Modern Architects had at the beginning of this century. It has finally come true, but they themselves don't realize it. That's because it doesn't take an Architect to build a metal building. You just order them out of a catalog - comes with a bunch of guys who put it together in a couple of days, maybe a week. And there you go - you're all set to go into business - just slap a sign out front.

David Byrne

Dream, Couple, Order

"Fictional character: Narrator". Musical, Comedy, www.imdb.com. 1986.

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There's something about music that encourages people to want to know more about the person that made it, and where it was recorded, what year it was done, what they were listening to, and all this kind of stuff. There's something that invites all this obsessive behavior.

David Byrne

Years, People, Listening

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

David Byrne

Tombstone, Lying, Suits

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We don't make music, it makes us

David Byrne

David Byrne (2017). “How Music Works”, p.172, Three Rivers Press

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People will do odd things if you give them money.

David Byrne

People, Giving, Odd Things

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There's an old joke that you know you're in heaven if the cooks are Italian and the engineering is German. If it's the other way around you're in hell.

David Byrne

Italian, Engineering, Heaven

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I'd like to be known for more than being the guy in the big suit.

David Byrne

Guy, Suits, Bigs

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I love getting out of my comfort zone.

David Byrne

Comfort, Comfort Zone, Zone

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As everything becomes digitized, there's the idea that things that can't be digitized become more valuable.

David Byrne

Ideas, Valuable

"David Byrne and Jeremy Deller: Audio Games". Interview, www.blouinartinfo.com. March 17, 2010.

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Maybe it's naïve, but I would love to believe that once you grow to love some aspect of a culture-its music, for instance -you can never again think of the people of that culture as less than yourself. I would like to believe that if I am deeply moved by a song originating from some place other than my own homeland, then I have in some way shared an experience with the people of that culture. I have been pleasantly contaminated. I can identify in some small way with it and its people.

David Byrne

Music, Song, Believe

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Interviewer: If I gave you fifty dollars, right now, what would you do with it?David Byrne: I would get something to eat.

David Byrne

Dollars, Fifty, Right Now

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I am an immigrant with a Green Card and, therefore, I am not eligible to vote in a federal election.

David Byrne

Cards, Green, Election

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My favorite term for a new kind of performance is "security theater." In this genre, we watch as ritualized inspections and patdowns create the illusion of security. It's a form that has become common since 9/11, and even the government agencies that participate in this activity acknowledge,off the record, that it is indeed a species of theater.

David Byrne

Agency, Government, Watches

David Byrne (2017). “How Music Works”, p.76, Three Rivers Press

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Book learning, or intelligence of one sort, doesn't guarantee you intelligence of another sort.You can behave just as stupidly with a good college education.

David Byrne

Book, College, Guarantees

2004 In Scotland on Sunday, 29 Feb.

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Television sounded really different than the Ramones sounded really different than us sounded really different than Blondie sounded really different than the Sex Pistols

David Byrne

Sex, Different, Television

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Yeah, anybody can go in with two turntables and a microphone or a home studio sampler and a little cassette deck or whatever and make records in their bedrooms.

David Byrne

Home, Two, Littles

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It's a fundamental, social attitude that the 1% supports symphonies and operas and doesn't support Johnny learning to program hip-hop beats. When I put it like that, it sounds like, 'Well, yeah,' but you start to think, 'Why not, though?' What makes one more valuable than another?

David Byrne

Attitude, Thinking, Symphony

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"When it became easy enough to do dairy online, then I just thought, "Oh, I'll start doing this. I'll put the parts online that aren't going to get me in trouble. I'll save the rest for myself." It became also this kind of self-therapy. I could write about stuff that was bothering me, or personal stuff. And the very personal stuff I could edit out. But it was kind of the catharsis of getting it out and writing about it, that made me think, "Okay, I see why people do this, why they keep these diaries." So I thought, "Well, let's see what happens when I post some of it.""

- David Byrne,

pitchfork.com, added Jan 18, 2018

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David Byrne

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Born: May 14, 1952
Occupation: Musician
Cite this Page: Citation

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