74 Quotes by Nate Ruess

Running in Central Park is my favorite thing to wake up and do. I have my own specific path that I have to run every single time. There’s a little bit of OCD involved, but I love it.

As a songwriter I hate this whole, ‘If it’s a sad song, it has to sound like a sad song thing.’ And that goes all the way back to my days with the Format. I’m an insane narcissist, so if I have to get something off my chest, I’ll get something off my chest.

There’s beauty in every sin; every single black eye has some blue like the moon, just before the sun shines.

I don’t play an instrument – I just write in my head, and I usually hear fully formed songs. ‘We Are Young’ turned out so much like it was in my head. But it also exceeded all my expectations.

We love a good, hyped sound, but when it starts to sound insincere, that’s when I lose interest. I hope that our music, even if it sounds polished, doesn’t sound insincere.

It’s as simple as finding something on the street and then writing a jingle. If I’m driving and I have my turn signal on and it’s rhythmic, maybe I just write a song to that.

Even now, when I try and think of band names just randomly, I’m so thankful that ‘fun.’ is the name of the band. I never really think twice about it. It is so simple and so easy.

If you look at a lot of the songs I’ve been involved in, there’s always been this retro vibe. I started getting worried that I wasn’t moving forward very much, nor was I even in tune with the music today. I almost scoffed at it.

It’s important that I get time to run, to just go for a jog for about 30 minutes. It helps with my voice, but it also kind of gives me a little bit of time to myself – and you get to see a city.