Making an album can be like being pregnant: you want to pop that thing out and show everybody!
Boarding school didn't feel like my world, I felt like an alien; people there had a lot of money.
The thing for me is I never had this burning desire to do a solo record my whole life.
When the Strokes first started playing gigs, instead of getting into a costume for the shows, we talked about how we should dress every day, in real life, like we're playing onstage. I don't really care about clothes, but it's about wearing something that gives you social confidence. Or maybe helps you pick up chicks.
I think I used to do everything and then people had a problem with that within the band, so we're doing more of a communal thing.
I always reference 'Mad Max' when I think about what I want to wear. But it's a fine line between that and 'Edward Scissorhands'.
For a long time I didn't want to do a solo thing, but there comes a point where everyone else is going outside of The Strokes and The Strokes filtering process.
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.'
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.
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.
I'm always writing something. I've got so much stuff, I don't know what to do with it. Some of it will be Strokes, some of it will be I don't know what - stuff for pop singers. TV themes. I've got a jar stuffed with songs, all these ideas that are just me humming into a recording device.
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.
I enjoy songwriting. It's slow-motion improvising.
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.
That it's a lot harder to make a keyboard sound not-cheesy than a guitar.
I'm not a pop song lyric writer. I can't just focus on one simple meaning or even a double entendre.
No one leaves an old friend unless they are ashamed.
Vanity can easily overtake wisdom. It usually overtakes common sense.
I'm happy to feed the illusion that I'm a lazy recluse.
I find it funny how people from Boston and New York hate each other because of pro teams. But, like, everyone on the Red Sox is a random millionaire athlete from somewhere else.
