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" Given a choice between Charlie Mingus and Eric Dolphy or Joe Strummer and Lou Reed, there was no choice. I like Reed and Strummer, but it's kiddie music. "

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" With 'Aja,' there was a sort of happy conjunction between our tastes and the backgrounds and styles of studio musicians at the time. "

" If there's a strange way to do something, I would certainly like to know about it. I feel that I owe that to my public. "

" The protagonist in 'Deacon Blues' is a triple-L loser - an L-L-L Loser. It's not so much about a guy who achieves his dream but about a broken dream of a broken man living a broken life. "

" All our wives are experimental psychologists. "

" When you're collaborating with somebody, there has to be a spirit of cooperation. There are a lot of times when you just can't persuade someone to write a certain type of song, either musically or lyrically. "

" Most of our songs are about relationships. "

" Singing, for me, means singing as loud as I can. "

" I don't think that the Grammys are in any way a just way of grading music. "

" Rock music is being systematically merged with fashion. "

" The perfect day for me is waking up and having a cup of tea with my kids before I drive them to school; Then, I go into the studio and try and write some music for three or four hours and give up about noon. "

" What about that Dave Brubeck live album, with a version of 'Like Someone in Love' on it, and long sax solos by Paul Desmond? That's what got me hooked on jazz. "

" You can't always count on the devices, attitudes, and conceits that stood you in good stead in 1972 or 1973, or 1978-79, to still have the same impact all these years later. "

" I have a feeling there were many, many successful rock duos that just didn't get attention. That's the fault of the rock press. They are always playing up controversy, scandal, aggravation, and irritation. "

" 'Deacon Blues' was special for me. It's the only time I remember mixing a record all day and, when the mix was done, feeling like I wanted to hear it over and over again. It was the comprehensive sound of the thing: the song itself, its character, the way the instruments sounded, and the way Tom Scott's tight horn arrangement fit in. "

" I think we're right up there with Herman's Hermits and the other greats. Maybe somewhere between Herman's Hermits and the Gershwins. "

" There was a film called 'FM,' and we were asked to do the title song. And I said, 'Does it have to have any specific words?' And they said, 'No, it just has to be about FM radio.' It took a day or two to write. "

" I'm a self-taught musician aside from what I've been able to pick up from other players. "

" That's sort of what we wanted to do: conquer from the margins, sort of find our place in the middle based on the fact that we were creatures of the margin and of alienation. "

" I guess actually playing on the records and touring is a great forced practice regimen for me. And you learn a lot playing with people. "

" In the '70s, my playing was completely untutored, but it sounded good to me, and I tried to find ways to make those very simple things work in more ambitious contexts. "

" We play rock & roll, but we swing when we play. We want that ongoing flow, that lightness, that forward rush of jazz. "

" My primary influences were the best jazz players from the 50's and 60's and later some of the pop people from the same time period along with the better of the well known blues musicians. "

" We have been fortunate enough to do something that has always been out of the mainstream and yet have an audience for what we do. "

" It's a mystery to me why everybody doesn't love jazz. I've never been able to figure that out. "

" Going out and looking for managers is like going out and looking for rattlesnakes. "

" I can never believe how much time and energy and money and talent and everything else is being poured into horrible ideas. "

" We've been allowed to operate unmolested on the fringes of the music scene, really. That's where we enjoy it most. "

" ABC had all these schlocky, bubblegum acts, and we had to come up with suitable material for them. In which we were amazingly unsuccessful. "

" Originally, we had a band known as Steely Dan. As we moved away from the band, we got whoever was appropriate for specific tunes. In a lot of cases, we gravitated toward jazz players who had more sophisticated harmonic concepts. "

" We try to write things that work on a variety of levels at the same time: A sleek exterior with a turbulent lyric. "