With 'Get Hurt,' we wanted to see where else we could go with the band. We thought it was time to change things up a bit. The song itself is similar to the feeling of a wreck you see coming, but long past the point you can avoid it.
I'll probably continue to write about heartbreak forever. That stuff doesn't go away as you get older.
You're always trying to make each record more autobiographical than the last one.
I can't really see myself writing about politics because I'm not really into it, and one of the worst things you can do is write about things you're not into.
It's amazing to me: when people start their career, you write about maybe a couple of topics, and you find that as you grow older, a lot of those topics never resolve, because I think your job as a writer is to pose questions as you see them. I don't know if we're supposed to give answers to people, because I don't know if we have any.
There's never going to be a new Beatles because we don't consume things in that way anymore.
When Tupac came out, my writing changed for sure. I learned from it. It was a cultural thing.
People don't remember that during the Fifties and Sixties there was a Cold War, and kids were getting under their desks during school because they thought they were going to get bombed. So it wasn't really that ideal at all.
Everyone always says, 'We don't want to be pigeonholed.' But sometimes, your pigeonhole is a great place to be.
I don't have a 'Born to Run' in me.
I'm on the phone with this guy, and he says to me, 'People compare you to Bruce Springsteen. I don't think you've written a song as good as 'Dancing in the Dark' or 'I'm on Fire.'' And all I could think was, 'Me neither!'
You can't shape it. You can't change it. Your life is what it is.
I'm not really into the numbers game of, like, what position our record is. But you find out at the end, you know? You're like 'Oh, all right! That's good!' We had a Number Three record. That's crazy! What's that about? That's exciting to me! I think that's good.
We want to be big... we want to be a big band, but we don't want to be your best friends.
When you're a musician, a lot of time people help you out; they take pity on you. Family members will kind of come around and are like, 'Listen, I bought you a bunch of groceries because I know that you're a screwup.'
I don't want to be the mayor of New Jersey.
You pay your bills and you take care of your family, or you're not a man.
I don't really hate a lot of songs, but I think Weezer has put out some songs I really hate because they've also put out a lot of songs I really like.
It's a beautiful thing, to start over.
Springsteen is a hero to a lot of people in New Jersey. He's a role model - because he's a local guy who got out.
