Nina Simone was an entertainer. Bob Dylan was an entertainer. Anyone that can occupy a piece of music and make the air catch on fire at that moment is a true entertainer. That's how I view it. That's what I… — Michael Gira Copy Share Image
I have my own record company. I have to answer to God, basically. I'm not young, so I want to make the best possible… — Michael Gira Copy Share Image
It's good that people come to the shows because there's nothing fashionable about Swans. Never has been, really. We've never been part of a… — Michael Gira Copy Share Image
The sexuality of children - there's a lot friction there. That tension interests me a lot. — Michael Gira Copy Share Image
I wanted to challenge myself and move into something new. I felt that using the name Swans and the sonic attitude that that engenders was what I needed to move forward musically, and it's led to lots of new things. — Michael Gira Copy Share
When I walk around New York now, there are so many ghosts. I find it very uncomfortable. There were many hard years, and I… — Michael Gira Copy Share Image
I'm just as comfortable performing solo with just my acoustic guitar and vocal as I am with a band. The main thing for me… — Michael Gira Copy Share Image
I'm a producer in the old-school way - not just some slacker working on Pro Tools. — Michael Gira Copy Share Image
I like loud electric guitars because I like how you can just lose your entire being in the sound. But I can't find myself in a situation where our band Swans is doing typical chord progressions - it just seems cliché to me. Even changing chords sounds like a cliché sometimes, though it happens occasionally in our music. But you… — Michael Gira Copy Share
“An oiled young stud does sit-ups on his Soloflex machine, eviscerates himself with an impossibly honed and gleaming kitchen knife, flings his dangling intestines… — Michael Gira Copy Share Image
“I never could read Foucault. I find philosophy tedious. All of my knowledge comes from reading novels and some history. I read Being and Nothingness and realized that I remembered absolutely nothing when I finished it. I used to go to the library every day and read every day for eight hours. I’d dropped out of high school and had… — Michael Gira Copy Share
“I like Sade. I’m re-reading Juliette. I skip the philosophy and read the salacious bits. His descriptive imagination is incredible.” — Michael Gira Copy Share Image
I don't throw my body down on the stage at all anymore because I'm sure I'd snap like a twig. — Michael Gira Copy Share Image
