96 Quotes by St. Vincent

My dad used to love Steely Dan, the Stones, Jethro Tull and all that. There was always Steely Dan going in my dad’s car, but I remember The Royal Scam in particular because it has ‘Kid Charlemagne’ on it.

And if I’m honest about it, I was obsessed with Nirvana and Pearl Jam. This is like ’92, right in the throes of Soundgarden and Pearl Jam and Nirvana. I think I probably wanted to be Kurt Cobain.

I think in some ways, it can do a listener a disservice to explain a song. I think I’d rather leave a little room for people to put themselves in it.

Your skin’s so fair its not fair.

I love Robert Fripp. You know what I really appreciate about Robert Fripp? He always dresses appropriately for the occasion. When he’s on stage, he’s a Dapper Dan.

One of my favourite things about country music is that, at least until recently, you could always count on a solid story, a punchline and a pun. I think it has that in common with hip hop, where they’re not afraid of wordplay and I really appreciate that.

To be honest, because there’s loud music in my ears probably three hours a day, between sound check and the show, I listen to podcasts more than I listen to music on the road.

The Lilith Fair thing was Bummer Town – hey, hop aboard the marginalizing train. I guess you had people come out of that and have careers, but I think there was a pretty intense backlash, too.

I guess trying to throw my body into the guitar is so natural for me that I don’t even know how to explain it. I can’t imagine life without it.