Music is like film to me.
— The Weeknd
I'm mainstream.
I was 14, and I fell in love with Pink Floyd.
I was everything an R&B singer wasn't. I wasn't in shape. I wasn't a pretty boy.
When I was making the early stuff, I never expected it to be so big. I was in my own kind of bubble. I never wanted to tour; I just wanted to create music and make a diary I could put out into the world. And sometimes, I became the characters.
I don't think I'd ever apologise for music I make, no.
We're all insecure, aren't we? I'm not walking around like I'm macho man or anything.
For the chorus of 'Secrets,' we used The Romantics' 'Talking in Your Sleep' and 'Pale Shelter' by Tears for Fears. It's like hip-hop: just grab it.
I couldn't ever go back home without being something. I probably would never have gone back home. That was definitely a big motivation. To get back home, and not empty-handed.
When I was performing the songs on 'Kiss Land,' it was a great singalong. But there were moments where I realized some parts were catchier than the others. There's maybe two choruses on all of 'Kiss Land.'
I wanted to drop three albums in a year because no one had done it. It was bold, unheard of.
It's hard to wrap my head around the fact that there are people who can't or won't see what Black Lives Matter is trying to accomplish.
I want to be remembered as iconic and different.
I always hated how I looked on camera. I never put a face to my music, which actually made the music that much more mysterious.
'Kiss Land' is like a horror movie.
I'm a huge fan of R. Kelly's. He's a musical genius and probably the most prolific artist of the generation before mine.
I feel like I'm the kind of guy that would have kids before getting married. The first thing would be kids.
Image, lyrics, content, storytelling, cohesive body of work - that's Prince to me.
'Eastern Promises' is great.
I probably could have toured off 'Trilogy' for the rest of my life. It definitely changed the culture. No one can do a trilogy again without thanking The Weeknd.
I think that's why my career is going to be so long: Because I haven't given people everything.
It's almost schizophrenic who I portray in my music.
The mind of a 19-year-old is very different from the mind of a 26-year-old. You grow. You get into better relationships. You experience more, meet more people, better people. But when you're in a dark hole at an earlier point in your life - you write about the mindset you're in at that moment.
I just love Bowie. I think he's the ultimate inventor.
Bragging just sounds good, man.
Going to a therapist is not something you do when you're growing up as a street kid in Toronto.
Nothing feels better than going onstage and everybody is singing every word - and actually wanting to see you.
I always use Michael as, first and foremost, a vocal inspiration, and 'Off the Wall' was definitely the one that made me feel like I could sing.
I knew the second I finished the first record - 'House Of Balloons' - and had all this material leftover that a trilogy would be best.
Me not finishing school - in my head, I still have this insecurity when I'm talking to someone educated.
My inspiration is R. Kelly, Michael Jackson, and Prince - for the vocals, anyway.
I'm all about surprises. If you watch a horror movie, and it's called 'Kiss Land,' it's probably going to be the most terrifying thing you've ever seen in your life.
In the beginning, I was very insecure. I hated how I looked in pictures.
I feel like the way I was raised was to be able to see through all the titles in this world - from religion to race.
Prince turned experimental music into pop music. 'When Doves Cry,' the whole 'Purple Rain' soundtrack - he was inspired by the Cocteau Twins and new wave pop and brought it into R&B when he first started, and then it became this cool, next-level, kind of hard-to-digest music. Which is what I felt 'House of Balloons' was.
The Internet, man, is a beautiful thing.
I didn't like the way I looked in pictures - when I saw myself on a digital camera, I was like, 'Eesh.'
Environment is very important to me. Sometimes I have to perform during the day for festivals, and my music does not work in the daytime. It is nighttime music.
I sang a lot of low stuff on songs like 'Secrets' and 'Rockin',' almost like Toni Braxton. On 'Secrets,' I'm a different person.
I mean... in life... what relationship is easy?
I wrote a song with Ed Sheeran that was kind of spontaneous.
The vibe on 'Starboy' comes from that hip-hop culture of braggadocio, from Wu-Tang and 50 Cent, the kind of music I listened to as a kid.
I didn't have a father figure in the house.
I just kept touring and touring until it became second nature to go onstage, perform, and sing.
I wish I could make music about politics. I feel like it's such an art and a talent that I admire tremendously, but when I step into the studio, I step out of the real world, and it's therapeutic.
I've had sleep paralysis.
When people meet me, they say that I'm really kind - contrary to a lot of my music.
'Thursday' is a conceptual album. Whatever that situation was, I spent the whole album focusing on that situation.
The whole 'enigmatic artist' thing, I just ran with it.
Marriage is scary to me, man.
