There was always a unique Beirut sound, it was always there, and so this time I just dove straight into that, instead of daydreaming and wandering.

I just reached the point where I realised, I need to stop repeating myself if I'm ever actually going to enjoy the music I'm creating.

I have tried to write soundtracks, and the main problem with those was that the directors often had in their minds a much stronger sense of what they wanted to hear, than what I was willing to give them, and I guess there was no way to say, "Well why don't you write your scene around my music?" Because that's just cocky and awful.

I dropped out of high school and I tried to go to community college for a little while. I can't be a student. I always hated that lifestyle.

The more I know, the more I realise I don't know. And the more I realise I'll never truly understand.

I'm sure that's every adolescent's complaint about their home town. When a city is unstimulating, you get pretty isolated.

I think I spent more time on the mellotron than on any other instrument in the studio, and it got to the point where I was like, "Well, you can't write an entire album on this instrument." But maybe I would!