“I think The Sunset Tree is really the album on which I really learned to trust other musicians, which is so important.” ThinkingImportantTreeMusicianAlbumsSunsetTrust Others Author:John Darnielle
“I think taking too long to work on a record you sort of lose some of the feeling, so I write as fast as I can; it's just this manic phase where I'm by myself and or on tour and I write and I write. And I send them to the guys, and we start planning our studio ventures.” ThinkingWritingLongI CanFeelingsGuyLosesRecordsStudiosPlanningPhasesVentureManic Author:John Darnielle
“It makes me envious of anybody who can say truly that they don't care what anybody thinks of what they do, because I care a lot about the people who like my stuff.” PeopleThinkingCareStuffDon't CareI CareEnviousBecause I Care Author:John Darnielle
“If my songs are being listened to between any other songs, that is awesome, and I'm glad people are getting something out of them. We go to countries like Germany, where I can't imagine that all of my fans are engaging with the lyrics first and foremost. I think they're catching a vibe, a feeling. I consider myself a lyricist first and foremost, but if you get something else out of what I do, that's fine too. I'm not sitting back and telling people how they have to take my stuff. We just want to play music, and hope that people like it.” PeopleIfsThinkingWantFirstsI CanCountryPlayFeelingsSongStuffImagineFansFineSittingGladGermanyImagine ThatEngagingCatchingLyricists Author:John Darnielle
“You can get really good reads on your dreams if you think of every character in them as actually being you.” IfsThinkingCharacterDreamYour DreamsGet RealGood Reads Author:John Darnielle
“What's funny is that people think, "Well there has to be something more than wrestling, because wrestling has such an absurd quality to it." But if you tell a love story, people don't ask what else is in there. They say, "Oh, it's just a love story." All stories have many levels, but these ones show their hand and say, "You might want to look a little deeper."” PeopleIfsThinkingWantWellsLooksLittlesStoriesShowsHandsMightAsksLevelsQualityDeeperLove StoryAbsurdWrestlingStory People Author:John Darnielle
“There's no such thing as mental illness. We're all mentally ill and we're all haunted by something, and some people manage to find a way to ride it out so that they don't wind up needing extra help. So I think that "mental illness," as a term, is garbage. Everybody is in various states of needing to transcend something.” PeopleThinkingWayStatesHelpingTermWindIllIllnessVariousMental IllnessManageExtrasGarbageMentally IllExtra Help Author:John Darnielle
“It's a cliché to state that one should think like a child, but it's clear that kids know something that the world tries to make you unlearn later in life.” ThinkingKnowsWorldShouldTryingChildrenStatesKidsClearUnlearnLater In Life Author:John Darnielle
“I think I read too much Arthur Conan Doyle when I was young, and got this idea that a gentleman should know a lot about one thing and plenty about most everything else.” ThinkingKnowsShouldIdeasYoungToo MuchOne ThingPlentyGentlemanArthurConan Author:John Darnielle
“I think listening to a lot of Lou Reed when I was a teenager is what encouraged me to just sing however felt good to me.” ThinkingFeltListeningTeenagerReeds Author:John Darnielle
“I think it's a misconception that metal's about anger, obviously.” ThinkingMetalsMisconception Author:John Darnielle
“I do have a romantic interest in outlasting everybody else. There's a sort of sad machismo to singer-songwriters, I think.” ThinkingInterestSingersSongwritersSinger SongwritersMachismoOutlasting Author:John Darnielle
“This is the funny thing about me. People think John just comes up with all the ideas. I'm honored. People think I have a big old brain, but actually I am the sum of the people I work with.” PeopleThinkingIdeasBigsBrainCome UpHonoredFunny Things Author:John Darnielle
“Our [former] governor [Pat McCrory] was supposed to be a moderate, but he found himself beholden to people who have much more draconian ideas. I think he assumed this stuff flew under the radar.” PeopleThinkingIdeasFoundStuffFormerSupposed To BeGovernorsModeratesFlewRadarDraconian Author:John Darnielle
“I have a hunger for justice, but art is a place I've always enjoyed being able to be free - to live in worlds that you don't have to be thinking about that all the time. I don't see myself writing Upton Sinclair books. My books are to entertain, although to me, entertainment is to make you feel sadness or to get in touch with your own pain - or fear, or to remember somebody who has gone missing from your life. That's my calling.” ThinkingWorldFeelsWritingArtBookAblePainRememberJusticeGoneSadnessMissingCallingArt IsHungerEntertainmentEnjoyed Author:John Darnielle
“I did a lot of music criticism. I don't think much of it was any good. I think I wanted to show off a lot when I was younger. Now I just want people to enjoy the story. If it were possible to publish anonymously, that would be awesome.” PeopleIfsThinkingWantStoriesShowsWould BeWantedEnjoyCriticismPublishShowing Off Author:John Darnielle
“I think grief is a huge subject; it's one of the things that everybody is going to confront in one way or another. There's been a lot of books written about how Americans have an odd way of trying to defer grief or minimize the need to grieve. People used to have a lot more ritual grief in their lives. For the most part, we think of it as a strictly temporal process: you grieve for a time and then you're over [it], but it's also a spatial process. It travels across a map.” PeopleThinkingWayNeedsTryingBookUsedProcessGriefWrittenSubjectsHugeOne WayOddGrievingOver ItMapsRitualSpatial Author:John Darnielle
“My family, before the divorce, moved several times, and after that we moved a whole bunch more times, and so I don't have an anchor to a single place. Probably as a result of that, I'm a little more attenuated to when people do feel close identification to place, whether they say it out aloud or not. I think that there's a sort of local patriotism that is deeper than national patriotism.” PeopleThinkingFeelsLittlesWholeResultsMy FamilyMovedDeeperDivorceLocalsBunchMore TimeAnchorsIdentification Author:John Darnielle
“In the present political situation, it's an interesting phenomenon to look at: what is the appeal of an autocratic leader? Why do people want somebody who yells at them? For most of us, that's so hard to understand. Who wants that? I think there are a lot of people for whom that fulfills some kind of need.” PeopleThinkingWantNeedsLooksKindHardPoliticalInterestingSituationLeaderAppealsPhenomenon Author:John Darnielle
“It's an important moment as a reader, I think, when you can forget the question of whether you need to know what happened. Some people really want hard explanations. I'm the other way. I like mysteries. I don't want to frustrate people. I don't want people to feel like they got no answers, but I want to approach the mystery and sit with it.” PeopleThinkingKnowsWayWantNeedsFeelsImportantHardMomentsAnswersForgetHappenedMysteryReaderApproachExplanationImportant Moments Author:John Darnielle
