David is purely a conceptual artist. He didn't play any instruments or paint or anything. We were painters.

When we were making Speaking in Tongues and Remain in Light, we were jamming. From that we were taking the best bits and then recording and improvising on top of those.

You learn just as much from your failures. Sometimes you love your failures even more.

Talking Heads, for me and Chris, was a very personal thing that we shared with a lot of people. In a way, I'm glad it's over, because it allows us to move beyond the restrictions that followed.

Art is not predictable. Art is not golf, as great as that may be. There are 360 degrees of choice to make.

We always thought the Tom Tom Club could change to anything, but it acquired this image, which was cartoon animation and this real light-hearted dance music.

We had our unhappy moments but they got channelled into the kind of sadness that was necessary for singing a song about going nowhere. So it worked out very well I think.

I like the idea of Wild Infancy, of people who have a deprived background, of starting out wild.

David is purely a conceptual artist. He didn't play any instruments or paint or anything. We were painters.

I wasn't originally a bass player. I just found out I was needed, because everyone wants to play guitar.

Make it, not make it? What's the difference? Music is a language, it's a dance of life, and it can be a part of your life without being something that earns.

It's a cruel, heartless world out there in commercial rock 'n' roll, and when you take as much time off as we did, eight years, booking agents don't know if you'll draw.

When Talking Heads started, we called ourselves Thinking Man's Dance Music.

We don't really have more than acouple of solos. It's just the way our music is put together.

I don't want to wreck my voice. I love to concentrate on playing the bass and keeping it very rock-solid. If I were singing, I would have blown out my voice.

We groove off of everything, any sort of live show. The inner dialogue you're having with yourself, between you and the music, is for me the search for God.

I would really love to work with Paul McCartney. Isn't that arrogant?

Stick to your instincts.

I have respect for those who make money at art and do it well and smartly, because that commercial aspect keeps the world going and running, in a sense.

Even the Beatles found it hard to escape their image; they were trapped by it.

We're not getting paid. We have these great musicians with us and it gives us a real charge. And the audience gives us a charge, because they keep it interesting all the time.

We don't always know what we're doing. We often just get excited, put something down, and say, 'Oh, neat'.

Many Japanese painters and calligraphers would change their names intentionally to keep their relationship to the art always fresh. This way, others' expectations can be avoided.

I think the idea of having the show divided into two parts was that Tom Tom Club opened for Talking Heads in Europe, and it was the best we'd ever had as an opening act.

If you have this passion for music, you don't stop doing it - it chooses you and doesn't release you.

It's hard to be perfect, It really is. I keep learning things after I've already bungled it.

Sometimes you don't want to be a slapstick clown in order to convey a funny perception of the world.

Richard Lloyd of Television is one of my favorite guitarists. His mentor was Jimi Hendrix when he was just 14. Jimi was always pounding everything he knew into that kid.

It's just such a pleasure to bring a talent you respect to the world.

I play bass. I don't have to go out there and screech.

Sometimes, you have to go through a phase whether you like it or not.

Generosity is the key to all relationships. To friendships and bands. Thats the golden rule.

Being a cover artist is not like being a real artist. That's just copying what someone else did.

The artist need not know very much; best of all let him work instinctively and paint as naturally as he breathes or walks.

What an artist learns matters little. What he himself discovers has a real worth for him, and gives him the necessary incitement to work.

Beauty, like truth, is relative to the time when one lives and to the individual who can grasp it. The expression of beauty is in direct ratio to the power of conception the artist has acquired.

I'm inspired by nature. Other artist's work is important for developing my perception.

There is only one position for an artist anywhere; and that is upright.

The difference between a bad artist and a good one is: the bad artist seems to copy a great deal; the good one really does.

To say that an artist sells out means that an artist is making a conscious choice to compromise his music, to to weaken his music for the sake of commercial gain.

What do you say when someone has truly inspired you? How do you express to an artist how deeply their work has affected you?

An original artist is unable to copy. So he has only to copy in order to be original.

When I say artist I mean the man who is building things - creating molding the earth - whether it be the plains of the west - or the iron ore of Penn. It's all a big game of construction - some with a brush - some with a shovel - some choose a pen.

You have to find what makes you stable in the storm. Then, no matter what's happening round you, no matter what the hype or the publicity, you can still manage to make leaps in your work as an artist.

The key to the mystery of a great artist is that for reasons unknown, he will give away his energies and his life just to make sure that one note follows another... and leaves us with the feeling that something is right in the world.

I've always felt that if one was going to take seriously this vocation as an artist, you have to get beyond that decorative facade.

Art is a private thing, the artist makes it for himself; a comprehensible work is the product of a journalist. We need works that are strong, straight, precise, and forever beyond understanding.

The most colorful section of a bookstore is the display of SF books, with art by people like Wayne Barlow, who is a terrific artist.

Arguably, no artist grows up: If he sheds the perceptions of childhood, he ceases being an artist.