It's only a matter of time before machinery becomes sentient. It's going to happen because we're already slaves to all of it.
I think other people's interpretations of what I've written are a lot better than what I have, because I don't understand a lot of what I write.
The only time we actually even think about our music is in interviews. We have to explain why we do what we do, even though it seems pointless to us to explain it. The rest of the time we just do what we do and don't worry about it.
I want to be known as someone who grew up a little.
I've come to realize that at the end of the day, it's only you yourself that creativity comes from.
The story of my life is the Chicano experience personified.
Mars Volta was always about embracing what 'too much' was and the excess of it. I never thought there would be an audience for it.
I think a lot of people could do with buying a Flying Burrito Brothers record - it does wonders for you.
The 20-year-old version of me had all this energy, and wanted to be obnoxious with his art and wanted to communicate even though he didn't know what he wanted to communicate.
You don't understand what you're angry about as a young man. You have those young man blues.
I'd hate to think that the stereotypical American is someone who just says 'Hi - bye' in conversation. That's how Europeans see us. And I'd like to think that not all of us are like that.
But if you work in the rock industry, you should realize that the most important bands are the troublemakers.
I've said this many times: Rock 'n' roll is this magnet for dysfunctional people who only know how to communicate through the medium of a live show.
There's this whole list of old personalities that I can act, as corny as that sounds, or as method actor as that sounds.
It's inspiring to see Black Flag looking like Vietnamese farmers with big beards and those kind of Vietnamese farming hats showing up at a Mohawk-mania club in England and being spat at because they don't sound or look like Exploited; they sound more like Black Sabbath than Black Flag. I love that.
Rock 'n' roll says, 'Hey, man, this is where you can be normal,' and then after a while you grow up and you go, 'Wait a minute. Oh, by the way, I learned how to do these cool things, but I never learned how to speak my mind. I never learned how to express myself emotionally. I should have been paying attention more.'
I'm a huge Tchad Blake fan.
Amputechture' is my personal way of describing enlightenment, or just the celebration of this person who is a shaman and not a crazy person.
If I speak my version of Spanish in Spain, they laugh. Same with Mexico. It's an alien world to me.
Growing up, everyone around me in El Paso, Texas, was all about watching 'The Wall' and, you know, 'Money' and 'Dark Side of the Moon,' which are fantastic records, of course.
