Looking back, [R.E.M.]videos, by in large, have always been art films. I'm thinking of "Losing My Religion." That's a landmark piece.

I was never afraid on stage. That's where I was the least afraid. I could just do what I do and I had the amplification and the lights.

I had lived in New York since 1996, sometimes in the worst neighborhoods, without even locking my door half the time.

My strength is character. I'm pretty good at building walking-talking humans with brains like beehives.

The death drive is parasitic. It runs off of other drives, leeching off of them.

If you've been in the art world for more than eight years, you realize another generation is making the exact same work as the previous generation - but treating it like it's never been done before. It becomes very cyclical very quickly.

The Greeks really believed in history. They believed that the past had consequences and that you might be punished for the sins of your father. America, and particularly New York, runs on the idea that history doesn't matter. There is no history. There is only the never-ending present. You don't even have your family because you moved here to get away from them, so even that idea of personal history has been cut at the knees.