When a band means a lot to you, you build the fantasy more than the reality. Always. — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
I listen to things that are popular and try to think about it in a mathematical way. — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
I don't really know where the songs are coming from often. Many of the best things I made up were just off… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
Lyrics are back, maybe. It seems like there was a bit of an attitude that lyrics are not important. — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
The lyrics are different from Nick Cave songs and lyrics. His songs are very narrative. — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
Оur music, it's an acquired taste. It's almost cult, even at our level. It can mean nothing to somebody and it can… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
Usually [the lyrics] go from one word to the next word - there's no finish line. The music was that way, too. — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
'Summer Babe' is the start of Pavement front-loading their albums with the catchiest song first. — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
Almost every band has somebody who's the main songwriter and who has a vision, a very clear idea of how a song… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
Despite my own doubts of being marketable or crushworthy, my goal was to write a record of peppy pop songs, hopefully without… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
Every song has a different genesis, or feeling. Usually the lyrics, I don't really know what it's all about, I just kinda… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
Like the song "Stereo", to me that's like, kind of hip-hop in that slacker way. There's some slackerisms mixed in with that… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
Maybe I don't have the patience to make a virtue of necessity - the patience to carry something all the way through,… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
When you do a cover it's a way to get attention clicking on something. At the Quiet Music Festival, The Jicks did… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
It's just a compulsion to create something new and stay busy. I don't know how to do anything else. It was never… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
But we're still rehearsing and planning to make a new album next year. We have some really good new songs that we've… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
You know, the songs that are self-conscious or jerky, they are that way, but the other ones aren't, so that's a good… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
I just don't think people listen. I mean, they can't listen to a whole album closely without checking their iPhone or wanting… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
It's hard to think back. I didn't even know I was going to do it, make actual records. But I was always… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
We care if people like what we did. If you're just making records for yourself, why put them out and do all… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
With lyrics for me, it's usually musically-based. It's not really poetry- or writer-based. It's rock-based. It doesn't mean that I'm aping rock… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
I hated it so much as a child. I just didn't like it when punk bands went metal, it really bothered me.… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
I just imagine that every song in and of itself is great, but when you add them all up, it's too much… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
I'm thinking, I'm singing like Ozzy Osbourne, but I don't sound like him enough, ever. — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
With some songs, I have written narratives or I've tried to carry it through, but generally the things that were more genius,… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
Besides, going on tour and playing songs and arranging things, going to practice, it's all I know to be productive. — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
Basically, no one else gives me any opinions on lyrics. I don't ask for them. If they did, I would listen. — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
If a voice is just too nice, without an edge, it kinda all flows by. You forget it. You don't listen to… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
But, then again, I wouldn't call myself an indie-rock supporter even if there are some really good bands out there and there… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
I want to do some different kind of songs, but say I want to do riffs, but I don't come up with… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
The narrative songs were well-written, like an article in The New Yorker. They're nice and pat. They're more like I'm just showing… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
In the early '90s, it felt like there was space - there was like an empty feel. There was nobody really doing… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
When I was a kid I really liked the guitarist of The Doors [Robby Krieger]. He plays blues, but he plays a… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
I know the world doesn't need maybe another of [a particular type of song] - the same thing again - but you… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
'Silence Kid' starts with a broken classic-rock intro. It's funny to hear us do that. Obviously, we weren't skillful rock stars. Then it's spinning… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
What producers did was mostly recording in the studio, so it never changed our sound just that much. — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
I'm better when I'm an autodidact and things just come. Or you're just blessed. I'm not bragging or anything, it just comes to you. — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
Men are men and women are women, but the men are dumber than the women, usually. — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
I am good at just looking in the kitchen and getting stuff on the table and keeping the mess minimal. There's an art to… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
Traditionally, when we lived here [in Portland], we have a record player in the living room, and there's lots of stuff playing, all different… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
I'm more into describing a scenario and I move around in that scenario. — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
I like a narrative, even if it's fractured, or kind of psychedelic. But my favorite thing is if I hear words and I close… — Stephen Malkmus Copy Share Image
![“Usually [the lyrics] go from one word to the next word - there's no finish line. The music was that way, too.” quote by Stephen Malkmus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/fb3/stephen-malkmus-2984_finish-line_usually-the-lyrics-go-from-one-word-to-t_2925632.jpg)
![“When I was a kid I really liked the guitarist of The Doors [Robby Krieger]. He plays blues, but he plays a lot of melodic things. He plays scales that are kind of unusual, and some bent notes.” quote by Stephen Malkmus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/82b/stephen-malkmus-2984_bent_when-i-was-a-kid-i-really-liked-the-guit_1151341.jpg)
![“I know the world doesn't need maybe another of [a particular type of song] - the same thing again - but you can't help yourself. And some people like it, but you kind of know in your heart that it's a lesser version of what you've done before. But maybe it has a good tempo, or it feels fresh, but…” quote by Stephen Malkmus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/8ba/stephen-malkmus-2984_done_i-know-the-world-doesn-t-need-maybe-anot_2993276.jpg)
![“Traditionally, when we lived here [in Portland], we have a record player in the living room, and there's lots of stuff playing, all different kinds of music. I don't listen to any of those Internet radio things. I have iTunes on my thing, but I've never bought a single thing on it. Except for…” quote by Stephen Malkmus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/841/stephen-malkmus-2984_call-me_traditionally-when-we-lived-here-in-port_100182.jpg)
