120 Quotes by James Murphy

If there was a direct influence on a song, I never hid it.

Punk rock, to me, was always outsiderness. When I first saw large-group-scene punk rock, I was repelled by it, because there were way too many people who agreed with each other.

Making people dance has another function that has nothing to do with art, and I mean that in the most positive way possible. It's like food - if you're not eating it, you're doing something wrong. If they're not dancing, something is wrong.

One of the things that I think is special about DJing is creating this atmosphere of collectiveness, as if to say, 'We're all in this together.'

Those early years in New Jersey were amazing. We lived in a really small town with tons of kids my age. There were fields and woods and a creek - it was a pretty ideal place to be a little kid.

I was always just blown away by David Bowie and how mannered the guy was willing to be. It was so far from what I imagined someone with my confidence to be capable of.

I always wished I had a more flamboyant streak, but it's just not what I'm made of.

I moved to New York in 1989 and went to study at NYU.

For most of my life, making music has cost me money. So I learned to live very, very cheaply.