James Mercer Quotes

The thing that inspires me most is empathizing with people's flaws and seeing how they deal with them. That sort of connection you feel with someone when you realize that maybe even the negative things that they've said or done are because of insecurities or injuries they've endured.

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

Humans are social creatures that really crave intimacy.

I think that was going on with bands like The Strokes was that the idea of the band, a real band, was making a comeback. My brother in law is an example- before he was listening to some country music, even some of that awful nu-metal stuff , but there weren't many options really.

There's no real reason for me to be so obsessed with trying to understand the true nature of things. You can live a perfectly happy life being utterly confused and not knowing.

I do like talking with friends about big concepts, you know, the stuff that will ruin a party. To me, the party hasn't begun until we're talking about the nonexistence of God.

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

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

I was a regular dork. I was a kid who was scrawny and all that, and probably kind of dumb or something. I wasn't unordinary; I wasn't extraordinary.

My dad and I get into it all the time. He loves to discuss politics much more than I do and we have pretty heated conversations.

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

My extended family is very political and very polar with each other, and it's put a bad taste in my mouth. All the rhetoric going back and forth and sort of hating on each other. So I'm not an extremely politically active person at this stage of my life.

I suppose, if someone was into baseball for an extended period of time during their formative years, they're always going to be interested in it.

There's something artistic about skating. A psychologist could tell you exactly why that is, but I think there's something much more expressive that gives you a lot of room for unique and individual expression. Whatever you're interested in can become something you kind of own in your group of skater friends.

If you're 14 and you're skinny, you can't be on the football team, basically. It's just not even really possible. But skating is something that you can do that gets that athletic urge satisfied, but you get to do it on your own terms. You can be as ballsy as you want to be. It was perfect for me.

I really [enjoy] working with new people and just sort of the freshness of it. ... I [want] to have those new conversations, musically and otherwise.

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

I kissed my first girl when I was 15, and then I lost my virginity when I was 17. So that's pretty good. It was just that when you're in high school, you're sort of forced into the normal world, where you're competing with the football players, just kind of in that world where somebody like me didn't quite fit in.

I think that what's funny is that I seem to be taking up the roles that I remember my dad having - for some reason, I'm the one who makes the coffee, and my dad was always that guy. It's kind of shocking how closely I compare to my dad.

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

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

I've never gone through an audition process or anything. In most of my decisions like that, I just kind of feel it out: You know, do I feel comfortable with this person?

The love you have for your kids is so overwhelmingly powerful that it alters your perspective. The dark things going on in the world become very poignant and vivid.

Honestly, humans are social creatures that really crave intimacy, and I think that the friends I have who are trying to somehow go it alone are suffering for it.