122 Quotes by Matisyahu

My life is not separate from my music, you know? It's not like a day job that I leave and go home. It's who I am as a person and how I am trying to grow, come closer to God, be a better person.

Judaism is my life. Everything I do is through the lens of Torah.

One of the first places where I started to respond to song lyrics was in reggae music. A lot of what I was responding to were references to the Old Testament. It was not that I had to adapt the lyrics to the sound. Reggae and the Old Testament are bound up together. There wasn't anything that I had to do.

I remember the moment when it hit me. I was walking down Amsterdam Avenue on the Upper West Side, and it felt like I was literally walking out of a jail cell that I had been in. At that moment, I realized I could shave if I wanted. It was up to me and no one else.

Change is an internal thing. Different things happen or transform, and music and art is a documentation of that.

I don't think you could pull one Bob Marley song that didn't have quotes from the Torah or the Old Testament.

Every record I do is a learning process for how I want to do the next one.

With music, you're working with a producer, and you walk out of the studio six hours later with a track that's almost completely finished. There's an almost immediate payoff.

When I'm onstage, I'm not thinking about ideas. I'm not in my head at all. It's a more physical experience.