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

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

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

Sometimes it's a form of love just to talk to somebody that you have nothing in common with and still be fascinated by their presence.

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

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

I couldn't talk to people face to face, so I got on stage and started screaming and squealing and twitching.

Frank Lloyd Wright... his things were beautiful but not very functional.

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

People in Latin America... love America from afar and emulate America in some ways but also hate a lot of things that America does to them.

It's not always been a happy marriage. I guess I wanted a quick fix.

I couldn't take pictures of green rolling hills.

To shake your rump is to be environmentally aware.

Real beauty knocks you a little bit off kilter.

I subscribe to the myth that an artist's creativity comes from torment. Once that's fixed, what do you draw on?

When we started, a lot of bands sounded really different from one another.

I'm afraid that reason will triumph and that the world will become a place where anyone who doesn't fit that will become unnecessary.

All you needed was a couple of instruments and a few chords and you could be on an indie label.

My favorite time of day is to get up and eat leftovers from dinner, especially spicy food.

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

I didn't have any agenda or plan when I started writing stuff.

I've been in beautiful landscapes where one is tempted to whip out a camera and take a picture. I've learned to resist that.

The Heads were the only band on that scene that had a groove.

The true face of smoking is disease, death and horror - not the glamour and sophistication the pushers in the tobacco industry try to portray.

I never listen to the radio unless I rent a car.

I read the NY Times but I don't trust all of it.

I like to combine the dramatic emotional warmth of strings with the grooves and body business of drums and bass.

I find rebellion packaged by a major corporation a little hard to take seriously.

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

To some extent I happily don't know what I'm doing. I feel that it's an artist's responsibility to trust that.

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

Architecture theory is very interesting.

I try never to wear my own clothes, I pretend I'm someone else.

It didn't even occur to me that I'm the last person in the world who should play salsa or Brazilian music.

I'm guarded; I don't talk much.

I'm afraid that everything will get homogenized and be the same.

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

Artists are notoriously snooty and suspicious of anything coming from the business community.

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

Before recording technology existed, you could not separate music from its social context.

Cycling can be lonely, but in a good way. It gives you a moment to breathe and think, and get away from what you're working on.

Cycling is a joy and faster than many other modes of transport, depending on the time of day. It clears the head.

Deep down, I know I have this intuition or instinct that a lot of creative people have, that their demons are also what make them create.

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.

Do creative, social, and civic attitudes change depending on where we live? Yes, I think so.

Domination and monopoly is the name of the game in the web marketplace.

From what I've heard, Paris did a little bit more prep work as far as making bike lanes and all of that stuff. They really did it properly, which New York is getting to little by little.

Having unlimited choices can paralyze you creatively.

I always think the everyday is more relevant than anything too grand because we all have to deal with it.