Pop music is so structured, and I'm excited to try and challenge that in my own work. — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
My music is just about story telling. I don't have much to say, and I'm not trying to change anyone's mind. I'm… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
A musician's attempt to summarize his or her work leads to all this prescriptive chatter, or what I call the 'Modifier's Madness.'… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
There is nothing more incredible and moving and appealing than good music, and it cannot always be reduced to a story, to… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
I want to throw my voice more, I want to manipulate melody more... I want to be less deliberate and mechanical... I… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
I've been trying to challenge myself to be more explicit. I've always liked punk rock and Sonic Youth. I make that music… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
The music is the imperative. It has the upper hand. I think all music, even though it's an abstraction, does motivate a… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
I'm not beholden to the public, and neither are the public beholden to me or my songs. I'm very much of a… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
Musicians are often asked to answer for an entire culture, or for an entire movement. It's a process of commodification. It becomes… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
I think that music has always been restricted to media. The LP is an antiquated form, and the CD is now an… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
Some of my music requires an obsessive-compulsive approach and a real embodiment of excessiveness. So I really have to live in that… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
I'm from the generation that's always been recording, from the very beginning. I learned to play the guitar on the four-track. I… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
My only concern about art collaborations is that I never thought of myself as an Artist. My tax forms say Musician/Songwriter. — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
I find in music there's a space and a language I can use to express things in ways I can't describe conversationally. — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
I was feeling privileged and self-conscious about my life as a musician, which feels self-absorbed. I can't help it, I am a… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
You know, I don't think my music is important, I don't think it's changing the world, I don't think it's art. I… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
I believe that music is a spiritual language. My everyday self is pretty mundane and boring, but when I'm making music it… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
I'm always hearing music in terms of what I can take out of it, and I think I've always listened like that.… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
There's nothing cutting edge about what I'm trying to do. I'm not creating a new sound. I'm not like Bjork, who's an… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
I'm no longer beholden to the sacredness of the recorded song as some kind of ultimate standard by which every performance of… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
It's a mystical quality of music, that music isn't really concrete, and it's communicating abstractions about imaginary worlds. At least, my music's… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
I think musicians should stay off television generally. I get asked all the time. Those shows are just promoting insipid comedies. Who… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
Perhaps we have failed as human beings. Perhaps we have embarrassed ourselves to the natural world. We have been rigorous and willful in all… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
Everyone suffers; life is pain; and death is the final punctuation at the end of that sentence, so deal with it. I really think… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
One of my strongest memories is my father playing bongos in the living room in Detroit listening to Motown radio. He was this skinny… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
“Now that I fell into your arms My only lover, give out to give in I search for the capsule I lost” — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
There's a sense of urgency in understanding that your body is not really your own. We can control it to a certain extent through… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
I felt that there's an obligation when writing a piece about an urban expressway made in the 50s to acknowledge the context, and Robert… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
“I forgive you, mother, I can hear you And I long to be near you But every road leads to an end Yes every… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
The best fiction is geared towards conflict. We learn most about our characters through tension, when they are put up against insurmountable obstacles. This… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
Some of my music requires an obsessive-compulsive approach and a real embodiment of excessiveness. So I really have to live in that world of… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
Every time Jimmy Scott sings, it's the same but slightly different. I don't know how he does that or where he gets that from.… — Sufjan Stevens Copy Share Image
