James Mercer

Humans are social creatures that really crave intimacy.

— James Mercer

“The lines are all imagined.”

— James Mercer

My dad was a Navy munitions officer, and by the end of his career, he was a specialist in nuclear weapons.

— James Mercer

My attempt at really doing classic sort of songwriting is Shins stuff.

— James Mercer

One thing that I've struggled with has been a certain amount of animosity toward the whole human race.

— James Mercer

Until having kids, I had never really thought about mortality so much.

— James Mercer

I tend to [have] a lot of ideas but then just leave them in that infant form and kind of move on.

— James Mercer

My whole goal is to make good records and keep myself inspired and able to accomplish what I need to accomplish.

— James Mercer

I sit and write songs alone and then get together with people to help me flesh it out into a recording.

— James Mercer

I'm real happy. I've been lucky in love, and I've got a wonderful kid now, and things have been going well.

— James Mercer

The Shins is, in a way, a recording project that turned into a live band. So I don't really keep myself beholden…

— James Mercer

I think perfect dates involve walking a lot, and not a bunch of driving around in cars. Ideally, you can walk together…

— James Mercer

The real challenge of writing songs isn't just writing a bunch of parts - like a verse, chorus, verse - but making…

— James Mercer

I most enjoy sitting down with the acoustic guitar and just fiddling around and trying to come up with something like a…

— James Mercer

I've never gone through an audition process or anything. In most of my decisions like that, I just kind of feel it…

— James Mercer

There's no real reason for me to be so obsessed with trying to understand the true nature of things. You can live…

— James Mercer

I think that once you start writing songs, you start developing a library of ideas that you can go and take from,…

— James Mercer

There is pressure that comes with everything being a big deal. I remember thinking, 'I need to survive the Shins. I don't…

— James Mercer

For some reason, it seems like pop writers, it's like they just get worse or something over time. And then you're really…

— James Mercer

I remember being in high school, and you had to draw those lines and define yourself. I don't think when I was…

— James Mercer

When I started The Shins, it really was just me, alone, but it was still The Shins. I was totally recording stuff…

— James Mercer

You have to keep the recording process open. If you make too many decisions before you go in, you can lose out…

— James Mercer

I think that was going on with bands like The Strokes was that the idea of the band, a real band, was…

— James Mercer

My extended family is very political and very polar with each other, and it's put a bad taste in my mouth. All…

— James Mercer

As a child, I lived in Germany at the Ramstein air force base, where my dad sang at a nightclub in Kaiserslautern.…

— James Mercer

I kissed my first girl when I was 15, and then I lost my virginity when I was 17. So that's pretty…

— James Mercer

There's not a lot of thinking that I need to do away from the studio on Broken Bells stuff.

— James Mercer

I tend to write a pretty half and half split of, like, slow, morose things and then sort of more upbeat stuff.

— James Mercer

I really know so little about recording, and I'm learning as I go.

— James Mercer

I've always sort of felt like what the Shins is, I guess, is a vehicle for my writing.

— James Mercer

Meeting Perry Farrel was kind of cool. He's such an icon, and I was such a fan of Jane's Addiction.

— James Mercer

I kinda learned to sing singing to Echo and the Bunnymen songs and Smiths songs: Morrissey would be a big favorite.

— James Mercer

I'm not really excited about the idea of committing to anything permanently.

— James Mercer

Life is sad. People, you know, are going to pass, and you know that you will one day.

— James Mercer

Horrible dates are when you're with people who are immature and can't really be comfortable in their own skin.

— James Mercer

My hope is that one day I'll be able to work and have a quieter life, but still a creative life.

— James Mercer

I have no ethics when it comes to art. You just do what you can to make it as beautiful as you…

— James Mercer

The part of modern pop music I don't know much about is hip hop.

— James Mercer

I've never been one to think it was cheating to sample this or to loop the drum part there - I've always…

— James Mercer

I don't like the idea of a singer-songwriter record. I don't picture myself that way, and it's not my favorite sort of…

— James Mercer