I don't think people are going to switch over to bikes because it's good for them or because it's politically correct. They're going to do it because it gets them from A to B faster.
— David Byrne
People are already finding ways to make their music and play it in front of people and have a life in music, I guess, and I think that's pretty much all you can ask.
The true face of smoking is disease, death and horror - not the glamour and sophistication the pushers in the tobacco industry try to portray.
The Heads were the only band on that scene that had a groove.
Television sounded really different than the Ramones sounded really different than us sounded really different than Blondie sounded really different than the Sex Pistols.
People in Latin America... love America from afar and emulate America in some ways but also hate a lot of things that America does to them.
I've been in beautiful landscapes where one is tempted to whip out a camera and take a picture. I've learned to resist that.
I'm afraid that everything will get homogenized and be the same.
I try never to wear my own clothes, I pretend I'm someone else.
I never listen to the radio unless I rent a car.
I find rebellion packaged by a major corporation a little hard to take seriously.
I couldn't take pictures of green rolling hills.
Analysis is like a lobotomy. Who wants to have all their edges shaved off?
I'm very much into making lists and breaking things apart into categories.
The voting booth joint is a great leveler; the whole neighborhood - rich, poor, old, young, decrepit and spunky - they all turn out in one day.
The imminent demise of the large record companies as gatekeepers of the world's popular music is a good thing, for the most part.
When we started, a lot of bands sounded really different from one another.
That's the thing about pictures: they seduce you.
Real beauty knocks you a little bit off kilter.
My favorite time of day is to get up and eat leftovers from dinner, especially spicy food.
I'm guarded; I don't talk much.
I'd like to be known for more than being the guy in the big suit.
I subscribe to the myth that an artist's creativity comes from torment. Once that's fixed, what do you draw on?
I like to combine the dramatic emotional warmth of strings with the grooves and body business of drums and bass.
I didn't have any agenda or plan when I started writing stuff.
Frank Lloyd Wright... his things were beautiful but not very functional.
All you needed was a couple of instruments and a few chords and you could be on an indie label.
It's not always been a happy marriage. I guess I wanted a quick fix.
I am an immigrant with a Green Card and, therefore, I am not eligible to vote in a federal election.
I'm not suggesting people abandon musical instruments and start playing their cars and apartments, but I do think the reign of music as a commodity made only by professionals might be winding down.
To some extent I happily don't know what I'm doing. I feel that it's an artist's responsibility to trust that.
That's the one for my tombstone... Here lies David Byrne. Why the big suit?
Punk was defined by an attitude rather than a musical style.
It didn't even occur to me that I'm the last person in the world who should play salsa or Brazilian music.
I'm afraid that reason will triumph and that the world will become a place where anyone who doesn't fit that will become unnecessary.
I wanted to be a secret agent and an astronaut, preferably at the same time.
I read the NY Times but I don't trust all of it.
I knew I wanted to have a doll of myself on the cover. I thought, I wanna see myself as a Ken doll.
I couldn't talk to people face to face, so I got on stage and started screaming and squealing and twitching.
Everything's intentional. It's just filling in the dots.
To shake your rump is to be environmentally aware.
Sometimes it's a form of love just to talk to somebody that you have nothing in common with and still be fascinated by their presence.
