“I didn't really like confessional poetry or things. They seemed sort of dated to me, or just corny.” Quote by Stephen Malkmus
“I like a narrative, even if it's fractured, or kind of psychedelic. But my favorite thing is if I hear words and I close my eyes and the connotations or the image I get in my head, combine with the sound of them - sometimes phonetics. I'm just stringing those together.” IfsKindSometimesEyeTogetherSoundMy FavoriteNarrativePsychedelicFavorites ThingsConnotationPhonetics Author:Stephen Malkmus
“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
“Usually [the lyrics] go from one word to the next word - there's no finish line. The music was that way, too.” WayNextLinesOne WordFinish Line Author:Stephen Malkmus
“I don't really know where the songs are coming from often. Many of the best things I made up were just off the top of my head.” KnowsMadeSongBest Things Author:Stephen Malkmus
“The best I do, if I'm just playing around and riffing in a fantasy world, and then I'll write something down. Hopefully I write it down.” IfsWorldWritingFantasyHopefullyFantasy WorldsPlaying Around Author:Stephen Malkmus
“I feel the most natural thing is for music to come that way because it's sort of like poetry. Though I do think with poets that I like, like Charles Olson or Ezra Pound, they were rewriting constantly, until the poem becomes a diamond.But with music I don't really feel that way.” ThinkingWayFeelsNaturalPoetPoundsDiamondRewritingNatural Things Author:Stephen Malkmus
“I'm better when I'm an autodidact and things just come. Or you're just blessed. I'm not bragging or anything, it just comes to you.” BlessedBragging Author:Stephen Malkmus
“It's normally in the morning, just playing around. And I'm not saying everything I make is great, but that's what I do. I can't even remember how I wrote stuff.” I CanRememberStuffMorningPlaying Around Author:Stephen Malkmus
“With some songs, I have written narratives or I've tried to carry it through, but generally the things that were more genius, as far as I was concerned, were not that.” SongWrittenGeniusConcernedNarrative Author:Stephen Malkmus