I want to be able to shoot laser beams out of my hands at people. That's the kind of stuff that you think all bands should do, but they don't, and I can't understand why most bands don't want to do it.

I think when people think of music from coming from Oklahoma, they think of Toby Keith or even Garth Brooks or even Woody Guthrie. People think, "Why do we have to just be about the Bible and about football? Why can't we be about something like the Flaming Lips?" And I salute them! I say, "Well, that's great if you want that."

To try to please people is an endless chasing of one's own tail. That's not very satisfying, so we do what we like and that satisfies us. When it does work out, its a bonus, really.

I know that is absolutely true for people when they are young - you don't want to be alive if the things that you love in your life aren't there.

It is comforting to know that there is at least one place where we can go and be confident that we will find an audience thirsting to find new music. Paste Magazine is that place. It's loss would create a very large black hole.

Music has the power to transcend your physical being and take you up. Because music has a metaphysical quality it really makes your life beautiful.

I think the more music becomes something you could simply download and have on your iPod, I think to a lot of people that is plenty, but to some people, they still want these artifacts that are touchable, and you can smell them, and look at them, and hold them and just have other dimensions of experience with this music.