Here are some choice quotes from interviews on Pitchfork. They run from one of our very first Q&As in 1996 to pieces that ran this year.

Everyone comes into an interview situation with their own story and their own idea and then they cherrypick the comments that help create their argument.

--Michael Stipe of R.E.M., 2008

I'll tell you how I came across Pitchfork. A friend of mine, a writer, came over, and we were having lunch. And he was like, "You know, I read this really funny review. You know this site?" And I was like, "No, is it cool?" And he was like, "No, it's not very cool. It's not very cool at all." And I was like, "Awesome." So I went and I read your review, and I read everything. And I was thinking, these guys fucking hate my guts! Some of the stuff was so mean that I was laughing out loud. Because it was just really super awesome. The kind of conversations I used to have in school. You know, "Did you get Daydream Nation?" "Yeah! John Cougar Mellencamp sucks!"

--Ryan Adams, 2004

When I was a kid, I wasted so much time feeling guilty about things that I never had control over, like who I'm attracted to, i.e. not girls. So not only am I totally weird physically, but I'm also mentally not like other guys. I'm set apart in so many ways. I don't want the biggest audience in the world. I just want the audience of the people who can understand me.

--Bradford Cox of Deerhunter, 2007

We've just been waiting for the time to do new music. I mean, I've been ready for a year. Next year, hopefully.

--Robbie Chater of the Avalanches, 2001

Maybe. I don't really see it happening, but I would not put it past the band getting back together for one big gig somewhere. Times might change and it might make total sense, because it might just seem fun. It doesn't really sound that fun right now to run through all those songs, and we all live in different places, but a concert is not out of the possibility. I could see it.

--Stephen Malkmus on the possibility of a Pavement reunion, 2003

We had walkie-talkies. But the head guard would get mad if you fooled around with them. You called code two if you had to go to the bathroom. Malkmus and I would call code twos at the same time and go get high in Central Park.

--David Berman of Silver Jews on working as a security guard at The Whitney, 2002

I didn't have a damn thing to think about. I was bored. I had nothin' to say to my girlfriend, nothin' to say to anyone. It was like 10 hours a day and then I'd do this stupid thing where I'd go to Seattle to crash an hour away. It's a longass drive for someone with nothin' to think about. I had nothin' to say. Nothing.

--Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse on the title of This Is a Long Drive For Someone With Nothing to Think About, 1996

Photo by Stefano Giovannini

Like Mariah Carey, is she only thinking [mocks her melodramatic melisma and does a screeching vocal scale]. Is that all she thinks? Or does she think, "My sister has AIDS, I've been raped by my dad, I've been so manipulated, I can't see straight, I'm on anti-depressants, I've got so much money, I don't know who to trust"? Are those things going through her mind?

--Chan Marshall of Cat Power, 2003

You know, the Scarecrow needed a brain, the Tin Man needed a heart, and the other dude needed courage. I need love, you feel me?

--Ghostface Killah, 2009

Going back and listening to those [Exile in Guyville] songs is kind of titillating for me because listening to the person I was makes me feel a little sexier, a little cooler, a little more dangerous, a little Angelina Jolie, which I don't mind so much right now.

--Liz Phair, 2008

An important part of Air France ideology is never to give an impression of fulfillment or closure. This may sound pretentious, but we just hate when it gets too saturated, you know? What we'd really like to do is terrorize people with complete silence, then every sound we'd make would be a sensation, a fucking scandal.

--Air France, 2009

I love America. I really do. It's by far the place I like visiting out of anywhere in the world. I get a palpable sense of excitement when the plane's landing. It's a cliché, but there's still an incredible energy about New York in particular. Whereas somewhere like Paris is always Paris, New York still has that power to amaze and disgust. Though staying in this hotel might have been a slight mistake. It's like being on the bad end of a Bret Easton Ellis novel, just wall-to-wall assholes. And I've also had all sorts of problems. For example, the hair gel they had in the drawer doesn't even set...

--Nick Cave, 2010

It's gruesome to think that people would attempt to create new human beings without being sure. It seems worse than abortion in terms of a sin to do those kinds of things. At the same time, it would be great to have another shot at Michael Jackson.

--Will Oldham on cloning, 2001

Photo by Autumn de Wilde

Just this guy who beat me up in middle school relentlessly. The kind of guy that would roll your house and shoe polish your driveway. You know, and make fun you of in the cafeteria, and try and harass you after school on the way home.

--Britt Daniel on "Jonathan Fisk", 2003

Any creative venture that's ever meant anything to me personally has been really over the top. Most indie rock is some of the dumbest fucking music I've ever heard, because it's usually just listless. Not even the same old stuff, but people being very subtle and very guarded. [...] And if you just sit there and wear a fucking trucker hat and play a Jaguar guitar, you can suck my fucking asshole.

--Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu, 2003

I think the whole aspect of social networking is vulgar and repulsive in a lot of ways. But I also see why it's appealing-- I've had that little high you get from posting stuff online. But then you think, "Did I need to say that?" I've explored that enough to know to stay kind of quiet these days.

--Trent Reznor, 2010

She came to Fabric when I was DJing-- it was for a grime night. [...] Besides me being a white dude from Florida and her being a Sri Lankan girl in England, everything else was the same: [We were both] film graduates, [listened to] all the same music when we were kids, were going in the same direction right now in music, it was amazing.

--Diplo on M.I.A., 2005

I don't give a fuck about her politics. I know everything about her politics, I know everything about her family. I know everything about it. No one else knows this kind of stuff. And that's not what's interesting to me. What's interesting is what she does on her records and how fucking weird she is.

--Diplo on M.I.A., 2010

It was actually an idea that I had, sitting on an airplane, getting my tray of food. There's a little packet of strawberry jam on it-- this was, like, a year, year and a half ago. The sun was coming in through the airplane window, and I just looked at [it] and said, "Man, it'd be really sweet if we could get the music from the album to sound like [what] this looks like."

--Panda Bear of Animal Collective on the title of Strawberry Jam, 2007

There have been a lot of incidents in the news in the last couple of years of people crawling into tigers' cages and getting killed. The newscasters are so shocked that it happened, but you know, it's a fucking tiger. That's what it's going to do. It's a man-eating tiger! We just expect animals to act like people, which is totally ridiculous.

--Neko Case, 2009

Spend a night with an owl and you'll see more blood than sleep.

--Bill Callahan, 2007

For someone who's had the level of success I've had, there's been very little critical review of my work, which is pretty fascinating. I mean, there are books on Radiohead, theories. As far as a theoretical point of view for my generation, I'm probably the most successful theoretician. I mean, double albums and concepts and dresses and major disasters and wonderful successes and yet you don't see the critical review of my work. Why? Because it's all focused on the persona. Billy Corgan. But I get to sort of jump in and be Billy Corgan. But then I get to sort of jump back out and be like, sensitive man in the corner.

--Billy Corgan, 2005

Kurt went upstairs in the bus, so I emptied the wrap, chopped it all out, none of the band wanted any. I said to Dave Grohl, "Do you want some?" No! So I did a line. Pat Smear? No! The roadie? No! So I did it all, and when Kurt came down I forgot about him! He said, "What happened to that coke man?!" I said, "Shit, I've done the whole fucking lot, nobody wanted any down here, I forgot about you Kurt!" So when I get up there to heaven or hell, wherever he is, I'll have a couple of grams in my coffin to give to him. God bless him.

--Steve Diggle, Buzzcocks, 2006

I've always believed that there's a sonic unconscious that makes people feel safe. Like when you used to watch things on VHS there would be a wobble, the tape used to get jammed a bit. And there's an element of that in what we're trying to do. I think Dummy has that as a record. There were sounds that were weird and otherworldly-- it was most likely record crackle or surface noise that worked in that way. On this record it's VHS tape.

--Geoff Barrow, Portishead, 2008

I don't feel like our record is overly confessional where it's like [singing weakly] "My mom and dad are doing stuff," y'know? Where you're like, "Just shut the fuck up. Here's a journal, here's a pen; I bought it for you, don't even worry about the money." I'm so hyper-aware of stuff like that, and I don't want to be...Doucheboard Confessional.

--Josh Homme, 2005

Before, I used to be more stressed out because I was feeling like I still had something to prove to people. But now when I go on stage I feel like I don't really have anything to prove. Not that I don't care, but I'm O.G. It's like, what more can I do? If I fuck it up, what can I tell you? I'm a classic already. If I write a weak song it's like, "Oh well, at least I wrote 'Re-Ignition'."

--Darryl Jenifer of Bad Brains, 2007

A bingo hall is the shittiest job in the world. You have to wear a uniform and a little silly hat, and it's the only indoor place that you're still allowed to smoke, because most of the people who go there are just alcoholics and old people.

--Jens Lekman on his former job, 2006

One thing about "Miami Vice" which I really try to capture in music is the feeling of-- that feeling when you see those guys go away on a very fast boat with big engines in the night. It's like a music video in the episode, as they play loud music and drive the boat. That looks fantastic.

--Karin Dreijer Andersson of Fever Ray, 2009

He [Brandon Flowers of the Killers] discovered Springsteen or something, so a lot of press I've seen has combined reviews of our two records. So that's one thing. But if I had to guess whether that guy from the Killers knows who the Hold Steady are, my guess would be no. But a lot of people said that: "Hopefully, he wasn't making fun of you." That was the thing, like maybe he's trying to dis. But still, my guess is that he has no idea who we are or who I am. I think that if I was Brandon Flowers from the Killers, I would be concerned about a lot more things, mainly just being a rock star and buying things.

--Craig Finn of the Hold Steady, December 2006

When his manager called to clear the sample, I told him to tell Kanye West that we loved it but that I'm not only Daft Punk's manager but also Justice's-- the band that he dissed on MTV. He was really embarrassed, excused himself, and said that he was drunk that night.

--Pedro Winter/Ed Banger, 2008

Our motivation was to get a Britney Spears record with "Justice" written on it. That's it. We've never tried to make efficient remixes or clever remixes. We never tried to make them radio friendly or DJ friendly, we just wanted to have our name written on these records. It was also a good way for us to learn to how to use a computer.

--Xavier de Rosnay of Justice, 2008

I think getting stoned has made me buy a lot of bad albums, because when I'm stoned I think everything is amazing.

--Jean-Benoît Dunckel of Air, 2009

My sex, drugs, and no-responsibility days happened when I was working at a used bookstore. But it's different when it's your job to be in a bar or a club every night.

--Kyp Malone, TV on the Radio, 2011

Because culture shouldn't be a pacifying thing. It shouldn't be something that you just passively accept. I think it should be something that, in some ways, is quite disruptive-- makes you think and question things, and actually sparks debate. And a lot of the time now, people use culture and music and films and stuff in the same ways you use them on kids. If kids are driving you mad and chucking stuff around the house, you put a Disney CD or DVD on, and then they shut up and watch it, and you get some peace. I've done it. I feel guilty about it sometimes, but I do it. And I think that kind of thing, in some ways, has moved into adult culture as well.

--Jarvis Cocker, 2007