My father was a teacher and my mother also worked in the school, so the family has a background in education.
— Nick Cave
I've always felt like an imposter, in the whole, as a musician.
'Inspiration' is a word used by people who aren't really doing anything.
People often can't separate, or can't understand, that to be funny is to be serious; it's a way of pulling people in and not scaring them off. I think a lot of the funny stuff, underneath it, there's a deep anxiety going on.
I used to believe that if I could do certain things - write a book or be a successful musician - that I'd be transformed into a happy person, but it doesn't work that way.
I'm hugely self-critical in the morning.
A rock musician's career is short-lived. To extend it, you need to do other things to keep yourself fresh.
To my undying shame, I do read reviews. I don't read them all, but I like to get some kind of idea how things are going.
I've always had an obligation to creation, above all.
I'm very happy to hear that my work inspires writers and painters. It's the most beautiful compliment, the greatest reward. Art should always be an exchange.
Getting married, for me, was the best thing I ever did. I was suddenly beset with an immense sense of release, that we have something more important than our separate selves, and that is the marriage. There's immense happiness that can come from working towards that.
Kylie Minogue is the greatest thing that has happened to Australian music.
Guns are part of the American psyche, aren't they? This is collateral damage for having a Wild West mentality. It's intrinsic to the American psyche. It's never going to change.
I just want to leave this world with a massive catalog of songs.
Musicians are at the bottom of the creative pyramid and authors are at the top, and many people think it's unacceptable for someone to attempt to jump from the bottom to the top of the pyramid.
It's possible to get through life without a religious structure, but I don't think that's a very fruitful way to live.
I've always been at war with the guitar. All vocalists are fighting a war with the electric rhythm guitar.
If beautiful movies can influence you to go out and hug your children, then we have to be honest and say that other movies can inspire you to do bad things.
I've spent my life butting my head against other people's lack of imagination.
At some point you start seeing the difference between what you really want, and what is your priority order. I feel that today I know what I want. That's the problem with perspective, as well as focus and concentration.
An artist's duty is rather to stay open-minded and in a state where he can receive information and inspiration. You always have to be ready for that little artistic Epiphany.
I write a lot, and very often I write a couple of lines that are particularly revealing in some kind of way. And then as a few more lines get added and a piece gets added, eventually the song pretty much takes over and you can't really find a way to change those things.
I always thought my records were number one; it's just the charts didn't think so.
With writing a song, I've always felt, right from the start, like I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel. I don't ever feel there's a font of ideas to fall back on.
There are methods to creating a mayhem that sounds different from your usual mayhem. Because mayhem and a heavy drum backbeat end up sounding like Green Day or something. But if you put a different beat within it to create some air and lightness, the chaos comes through better.
One of my big fears is drying up, and the more I create, the more I feel myself shrinking beneath the backlog of work I've done.
L.A. is full of screenwriters. I don't know why. On many levels, it's such a thankless occupation.
Writing screenplays makes me a better musician because it clears my head. After writing a movie, I go running back to music as fast as I can.
I don't think Hollywood makes many good films anymore. How many directors can you really trust to have an artistic vision, not a corporate vision or a watered-down communal one?
I love rock-n-roll. I think it's an exciting art form. It's revolutionary. Still revolutionary and it changed people. It changed their hearts. But yeah, even rock-n-roll has a lot of rubbish, really bad music.
I'm a believer. I don't go to church. I don't belong to any particular religion, but I do believe in God. I couldn't write what I write about and be creative without a certain form of belief.
People think I'm a miserable sod but it's only because I get asked such bloody miserable questions.
