John Cale

When somebody grabs a movement, you're kind of locked into it. It's all par for the course.

I'm impatient. I get twitchy. When I get that feeling I just go out and make something happen.

If I'm interested in what I'm doing, other people will be interested in it.

We'd hold a chord for three hours if we could.

The avant-garde makes more sense to me.

The value of having a computer, to me, is that it'll remember everything you do. It's a databank.

All of the sudden the audiences started getting younger and the spread of the attendance was really wide. I think it's as a result of the records selling more that they started following our careers.

We gave up on the idea of trying to make the record a good representation of the live performance.

Even if you're improvising, the fact that beforehand you know certain things will work helps you make those improvisations successful. It really helps to have a certain amount of knowledge about musical structure.

I'm writing a movie about Mozart going to New York in the '60s. I've been reading so many novels.

If you're all loaded up on love, you haven't got anywhere else to go.

I never use the word, it's loaded. What love means to me is need.

The only reason we wore sunglasses onstage was because we couldn't stand the sight of the audience.

I like what the future holds. I don't like thinking about the past.

That's what my life is, writing songs.

What I enjoy most about being on stage is that the natural instruments give you a greater freedom with texture. When you use natural instruments they have their own resonance.

Growing up in Wales was a pretty Draconian experience with religion.

I want to get lean and mean, keep it minimalist.

I missed out on my teenage years. I led a sheltered life. I was practicing scales instead of playing football.

People sort of know me for that solo piano music I did.