If I weren't making music, I'd be the kid who writes into the magazines and says, "why don't you guys ever cover anything that's different? Hip hop is so much of the same thing over and over again." I love hip hop, so I wanted to make an album from that standpoint, 'cause that's who I am.

Who can't relate to the idea of leaving one chapter behind and moving on to the next?

I remember being a little kid sitting in the living room with my brother and some friends from around the neighborhood, and I would sit at the piano and as they were running around the room doing different things and being silly, acting out, I would actually play the score for it - the music that went along with it.

I'm going to sprout wings out of my ass one day and fly around the world.

A decade is a long time to be doing anything, much less to be with the same guys, chasing after the same goals.

My dad remembers being in school with my uncle, and the teacher would say outright to the class that the Japanese were second-class citizens and shouldn't be trusted.

I spent ten years playing classical piano, and that was what led to keyboards and eventually to production and to Linkin Park.