Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" I started listening to a lot of Jimi Hendrix and Neil Young when I was 8 or 9 years old - I had siblings that gave me good music instead of the crap that was on the radio in the '90s. "

Related Quotes:

" Music is about self-expression and representing the times, and I think fashion is the same. It took me a long time to find my own style, both in terms of fashion and music. "

Eliot Sumner

Music

Think

Time

" I would make documentaries if it was a worthy cause. I have a lot of respect for people who put themselves in harm's way to make people see that something needs to be done. "

" Self-sufficiency is vitally important to my self-respect. I never wanted to rely on my parents in that way, because I knew that if I got used to it, I'd be reliant all my life. "

" I wear a lot of black. Like my heart. "

" It's difficult to explain exactly how I react to music, but if it makes me feel anything at all, then I'll have some kind of emotional relationship to it. That's what defines good music to me - if it makes me truly feel something. "

Eliot Sumner

Music

Feel

" For me, Paul Simon has always been an incredible songwriter, as he writes very complicated songs that sound very simple, and he makes it look so easy when it's not. "

Eliot Sumner

Easy

Complicated

" I sometimes suffer from insomnia, and one of the first times it ever happened, I was like, 'I don't know what to do with myself,' so I started writing a song, and by morning, it was finished. It was about how I couldn't sleep... I was 14. "

" My French is terrible, and my Spanish is even worse. I find Spanish really difficult. They speak so quickly, whereas in German, it's very clear what they're saying. It's easier to repeat. "

" Music is the only thing that I trust. "

" On my fourth or fifth birthday, a guitar was given to me, and I made a new friend. A very loud friend. "

Eliot Sumner

New

Friend

" People always have to have a reference - I think I'll always be in the shadow of my parents. "

" It stresses me out writing songs,; I get really super nervous and speedy. I feel like I'm possessed. "

Eliot Sumner

Nervous

Out

" I think I have a lot of energy, and most of it is quite aggressive energy. But in a positive way, I think. It's like a positive aggression. "

" As a kid, I loved to dress up as Ian Dury and run around hitting people with drumsticks. Members of my family, neighbours, friends, kids at school - no one was safe from my rhythm sticks. "

" With a band I feel stronger. It's not just me and my weird thoughts. "

Eliot Sumner

Weird

Feel

" I knew I wasn't going to write a record as soon as I got signed, because I hadn't had any life experiences. I was still at school, and I wasn't going to write about that. "

" In 2009, I fractured my skull in a freak accident at an L.A. restaurant. I suffered a seizure and was rushed into hospital. I was so out of it that I refused to let them scan my brain. My dad rushed to my bedside and talked me into having the CAT scan - he told me that I might die if I didn't go through with it. "

Eliot Sumner

Hospital

" I'm very shy and awkward; I can't have a normal conversation, and then people think I'm being a bit rude, but really I'm not. "

" It's not a nice thing to have a song written about you. "

" I only wear black. I think it suits me. "

" I like to write from a slightly sad or complicated place. But with a sense of hope and happiness at the same time. "

Eliot Sumner

Hope

Time

" It's always best to challenge yourself and go to a place out of your comfort zone. "

" I write most of my stuff when I'm on a train or a plane, any mode of transport. I like trains because you hear this motoric rhythm and the scenery is great. You go into your own little world. You don't have to be anywhere else. "

" I think, forever, I was trying to figure out maybe... what I am. But I don't think anyone should feel pressured to have any kind of label or tag on them. We should treat everybody the same... Me, I don't like to be put down to a specific thing. We're all human beings. "

" I didn't come out as gay; I came out as I don't really believe in gender. "

" I can only be myself, and if I have to suffer for that, that's okay, because to pretend to be somebody else - I tried that, it's terrible. "

" I'm an extremist. I don't do things in halves. I don't moderate anything. That can be with work or with good things as well. But often, I take it a bit too far. "

" With social networks these days, everyone needs to know everything all the time. But the problem is, people are so used to short snippets of information that no one has any attention span anymore. I don't, anyway. "

" I picked up the guitar when I was 4, and from then, I could never be bored. "

Eliot Sumner

Guitar

Could

" I make my songs slightly abstract so that people can interpret them their own way. I think that's a lot more special, so you can hear a song and think, 'I feel exactly that way,' even if it wasn't written for that feeling. "