Julian Casablancas Quotes

Forgive them even if they are not sorry

Desire is individual. Happiness is common.

Sometimes I've sat outside, not to tan, but as a result of that I ended up tanning slightly.

Religion is never the problem; it's the people who use it to gain power.

Greed is the inventor of injustice as well as the current enforcer.

With a hundred ways to do a dozen things, why not try it all?

Art is the image of life, it's purpose simply to enhance it.

Make sure your heart is singing right until the day it stops.

The best artists are the ones that work the hardest, and if you work hard enough, you'll eventually experience the happy accidents that are art.

I don't really care about clothes, but it's about wearing something that gives you social confidence.

I'm happy to feed the illusion that I'm a lazy recluse.

Making an album can be like being pregnant: you want to pop that thing out and show everybody!

Just slow it down enough to enjoy the ride.

When you first start writing a song, it's fun, then when you start recording it, it's fun, but by the time you've finished recording it, you're sick of it.

I feel like I've given up a lot of my fantasies. I just want to do things differently, and to a lot of people that's annoying. I like weird stuff. I always hoped if we had a big success it would be on our own terms.

A band is a great way to destroy a friendship, and a tour's a great way to destroy a band.

It find it funny how people from Boston and New York hate each other because of pro teams.

I kinda like messing with perception a little bit. Kind of what drugs do sometimes, and drinking. I mean, you know, you mess with your mind a little bit to see life from different angles. Within reason, if you can handle it.

Vanity can easily overtake wisdom. It usually overtakes common sense.

I think a lot of people study the rules too much and then don't know how to be creative.

I over-think stuff a lot.

No matter who I'm talking to, I always talk like I'm doing an interview.

The artistic element of Manhattan has kind of moved to Brooklyn. Has it changed it? Yeah. Has it ruined it? I would say no. It is what it is. I say better that than an urban war zone.

The problem with touring isn't the traveling and the shows, it's the vegetal state you get into.

It was 100,000 years before we figured out what to do with fire. Imagine cavemen, sitting in front of a fire, eating raw meat for 100 thousand years.

Boarding school didn't feel like my world, I felt like an alien; people there had a lot of money.

If you're in a bar and a certain song comes on and the vibe is just different, it evokes the kinds of things that you want to feel, and if music can do that it's a very special thing.

Doing heroin is like walking around with a terrorist as your friend. It's like taking a terrorist around to parties You never know when it's going to blow up on you.

I have to say, I'm good with gifts. If I find something perfect for a certain person, I'll just get it and put it away in a kind of nook under my bed - a little gift hutch, if you prefer.

Pretty much the only goal I've had since the beginning, which I still have, is just to get better, work hard, focus, and everything else will just be a bonus. As long as I'm satisfied, and I think we're getting better with every song compared to the last, then I'm satisfied and that's all I want. If we don't achieve that, then I'll be disappointed.

I very often have night terrors. Just think of the worst possible situation, and it's a regular thing for me. I've died in my sleep twenty-three different ways.

In most cultures, you can have a kid at 18 and it's not a big thing. It's not like, 'Oh, you've got to get a different haircut and move to the suburbs and act, like, 35.'

A tour is the most intense, stimulating way to hear music; it's the best form to receive it. There's genuine excitement from people. I feel like we've stepped up a level.

Kids are always honest, 'cause they don't think they're ever going to die.

Whenever I go to shows, I end up looking at what shoes the guy onstage is wearing and the jacket he's got on. And when you know everything's gonna be under scrutiny, it makes you feel more comfortable if you have cool stuff.

I'm really grateful. But I never had the rock star dream. I thought it would be cool to be a modern-day composer.

People are always arguing: New York or L.A.? They're both great places, you know.

It's not like I wake up and songs flow out of me.

I guess the best thing about marriage is the fact you've got the coolest partner you can imagine by your side for all the things you're going to face in your life. So far, Juliet's been there for me. She's been good for my voice, good for my everything.

People often put me in a V-neck tennis club sweater, driving a Bentley, but my life wasn't like that.

No one leaves an old friend unless they are ashamed.

We're so quick to point out our own flaws in others.

Don't you dare get to the top and not know what to do.

There are so many little places I want to play, sometimes weird places I think would be fun to play... a bar that's half full.

If it doesn't start with you, it dies with you.

Who you are vs. who you wish you were: Who wins?

I think you can only get closer to satisfaction but you never fully arrive.

I feel slightly confused about certain things. Practical and tactical things. When you try to make everyone happy… in the end you've got to make yourself happy.

I enjoy songwriting. It's slow-motion improvising.

I'm just going to try and be a good dad and not spoil the kid: give him love and encouragement but also discipline. Me and my woman, we don't want him to feel too entitled.