Top 70 Mark Lanegan Quotes

One of my very favourite poets was a Massachusetts poet named Robert Lowell.

‘Gargoyle’ was inching towards a more accessible record.

Even when I’m making my own solo records, I’m collaborating with people. It keeps things interesting for me.

I’d wear nice clothes and brush my teeth more often if I cared about what people thought.

Naturally, if I’m singing over really loud music, my approach is gonna be different than if I’m singing over some quiet acoustic music.

What do I look for in a collaborator? Pretty much anyone who asks me to do something.

It’s satisfying and gratifying to make your own music, but I personally don’t get the same enjoyment out of the music that I make as I do from somebody else’s music that I like.

Nothing seems too weird to me anymore.

I’m not a human interest story, man. I’m just a musician trying to make some small records and be happy, be peaceful.

It took me quite a while to find my natural voice. I’m glad I stuck around long enough to see that happen.

The first music I heard that made me put away my comic books and make music was original punk.

I’m not much of a partyer.

I was in trouble with the law from when I was real young.

You can only really sing about what you know; at least, I can.

Whether I live there again or not, Seattle will always be my home.

I can’t say what people use the experience of listening to songs for, but I would never tell somebody what it is supposed to mean. That defeats the purpose of making it. Hopefully, whoever connects with it connects with it in their own way, and it can mean whatever it is supposed to mean to them.

When I do something, I do it for the specified amount of time, and then I do something else.

We’ve made records for years on a shoestring.

I was never super comfortable playing music in front of people anyway. Now I enjoy it, but it wasn’t the easiest thing to get past.

I don’t really take time off between records; it’s a compulsion for me.

I have to have animals. They really make life worth living, and my world actually revolves around them. They know exactly when it’s time to get up, exactly when they’re supposed to get their food, and they let you know. Mine are right there in my face, first thing every morning.

In 1997, I thought I’d never make another record.

In real life, I’m far more lighthearted than I come across on the records.

I’ve had songs that were spread out over a number of years, and I’ve written some in ten minutes, and everything in between.

I’ve never been in charge. I’m just a lazy bastard.

I’ve always said everything happens the way it’s supposed to.

I’m trying to learn how to read. I have a tutor out on the road. It is great.

I guess if you live long enough, anything can happen.

Hanging out with the Trees is like hanging out with your family, and I hardly ever see my family.

In 2005, I worked as a scenic painter for a while when I was taking a break from music.

Nobody likes to believe that they need anybody‘s help in anything, and the smarter you are – and I’m not smart – or the tougher you are – and at times I thought I was pretty tough – the more trouble you have.

Usually, I write the music and am involved in the production.

I wasn’t the easiest guy to work with when I was younger.

When I was a kid in the late ’60s and early ’70s, my parents and their friends would play the records of Andy Williams, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and Perry Como, music with string arrangements and men singing songs that sounded sad whether they were or not.

Me and Kurt Cobain were both listening to a bunch of Lead Belly and diggin’ it. We thought, ‘Let’s do an EP of all Lead Belly songs.’ We did a couple, and both of us were like, ‘Nah, this is a bad concept.’ We set it aside.

It isn’t important to me how people respond to my work.

I grew up in a small, rural community, where my extended family were mountain-folk type people, and some were very religious.

I prefer to stay in the here and now and move forward.

I worked as a breakfast cook in a lot of different restaurants.

I have a high tolerance for pain.

When I think of a hit, I think of Madonna.

I played ‘Angry Birds‘ and tried to see what the hoopla was about.

Usually I get asked to do stuff that’s cool, and if I ever can’t do something, it’s usually, because of logistics, I don’t have the time for it. Rarely do I get ask to do something that I’d rather not do. I usually do it if I feel that it’s something I can do.

I enjoy watching basketball, yeah.

I was listening to punk rock in the ’70s as a young kid, but all by myself; I never met anyone that listened to that kind of music. Just by chance, I was in detention, and one of the guys in the class was Van Conner… I started talking to him and found out that we listened to some of the same music.

When I’m listening to music for pleasure, I’m gonna listen to someone else’s music.

It’s a different kind of satisfaction, different kind of enjoyment than making your own songs, to remake someone else’s song that you really like.

I didn’t always enjoy playing music with the Trees.

It’s always fun to play songs by somebody else.

I think I’ve just matured over the years.

I try and treat songwriting as something that I have to practise every day.

Talking about myself is difficult for me. It’s anti my true nature.

I had a lot of jobs when I was younger. Where I grew up, there was a lot of agricultural jobs, so I worked on a lot of farms. I worked in the pea fields, harvesting peas.

I’m about creating a body of work and moving on to the next thing.

Doing something that’s physical but not necessarily mentally taxing – for me, it frees me up creatively.

I used to throw a lot of stuff against the wall, just to see what ended up sticking; now I’m pretty much using everything that I create for a record.

As far as I remember, I don’t have any warrants out for my arrest anymore. I can travel without fear.

Most of the music I’m into wasn’t popular when it was being made.

You just realize that you don’t know everything there is to know. The older I get, the less I know, and that’s a good thing. When I was young, I knew everything, and everything wasn’t necessarily good.

If Brian Eno wanted to make a record, I’d definitely clear some time in my calendar. John Cale, too. Those guys consistently make great records, always doing their own thing.

I just see what’s in front of me. That’s what I’m happy with.

I enjoy working on whatever I’m working on.

Have I tried a black pudding? I’ll eat anything – I’m not finicky – but that’s not to say it takes any courage to eat black puddings because I find them delicious.

I like to fool myself into thinking that whatever happens is OK.

Usually I write on guitar.

There’s lots of singers that I love; I don’t know if I used any of them as role models. Maybe I would have been a better singer when I started if I had.

When they’re listening to your music all the time, you become part of their life, and some people get obsessed.

I wanted ‘Imitations’ to be a fully realized record from start to finish, with a cohesive sound and a sequence that took you from one song to the other, just like I would with a record of original stuff.

I enjoy the songs that I write, but I can never enjoy them the same way as other peoples’ songs.

Soundgarden are good friends of mine.