“Maybe I don't have the patience to make a virtue of necessity - the patience to carry something all the way through, and to actually say something. Lately, the songs are more jagged and they don't really lend themselves to that. I just take it one bit at a time.” WaySongBitsVirtue Author:Stephen Malkmus
“With lyrics for me, it's usually musically-based. It's not really poetry- or writer-based. It's rock-based. It doesn't mean that I'm aping rock lyrics, but I'm writing from a music standpoint. I'm thinking more of music heroes, if they're in my mind. Not William Blake or John Ashbury. Sometimes maybe I thought of him a little bit. Or Wallace Stevens. I don't even really fully understand either of them.” IfsThinkingWritingMindMeanLittlesSometimesBitsRocksHeroLittle BitStandpointBlake Author:Stephen Malkmus
“Lyrics are back, maybe. It seems like there was a bit of an attitude that lyrics are not important.” ImportantSeemsBitsAttitude Author:Stephen Malkmus
“In the early '90s, it felt like there was space - there was like an empty feel. There was nobody really doing this. Maybe the Pixies were, a little bit. Their lyrics were also disjointed, more psychosexual or something. That's part of youth, too, maybe, that you just feel like you're doing something different.” FeelsLittlesDifferentFeltBitsSpaceYouthLike YouLittle BitEmptyPixies Author:Stephen Malkmus
“My wife says that I changed people's lives or ways of thinking and that I should always be proud and grateful. If I'm dismissive of what we do sometimes, a little bit, she's like, "I was a fan, you changed my life," or whatever. That's what she says.” PeopleIfsThinkingWayShouldLittlesSometimesBitsWifeFansChangedProudLittle BitGratefulMy WifeBe ProudWay Of ThinkingChanged My LifeYou Changed Author:Stephen Malkmus
