I finally got to the point where I decided I don't care if it's good art or bad art, it's what I do. I enjoy doing it, and people like it.

It doesn’t really matter what genre [our music] fits in, if it’s fitting in an area that works for people who connect to it than that’s all that matters.

As an artist, as much as some say they don’t care what the audience thinks, I think that’s bullshit. The bottom line as artists, we want people to respond to our work, we want to move people emotionally. That’s the whole purpose in life!

I don’t spend my time perusing message boards to find out what people think about me or if people think my songs are good or if people love that lyric or this or that. I just want to be happy with it myself — and if other people like it, that’s great.

It doesn’t matter how many people don’t appreciate you or your work. The only thing that counts is how many do.

And I don't give a damn about a greenback dollar Spend it fast as I can for a wailin' song and a good guitar The only things that I understand, oh yeah.

Pop music is probably the only art form that is totally dependent for its success on the general public. The more people buy a record, the more successful it is - not only commercially but artistically.

I don't care tuppence for what they do in London in the art world. It doesn't matter to me. I don't think of it. All I am concerned with is doing my own thing in my own way.. as well as I can.

One doesn't look at the quality of work, they see how much it fetches, how it earns. That's a sad thing. Money is not the criteria of art. Art or love is not a question of money. One should perceive these things at a different level.

To me, music is not about generation, it’s about what would make people at home who listen to us happy.

[In response to the question "This record will probably be bigger than the last one, which was bigger than the one before, and so on. How big do you want to be?"] Man, I don't really give a shit. I mean... you know, let me just break it down; I love to play, I'm from a small town in the desert, I never thought I would be here and I just wanna play, man. I don't care if it's big or small, you know? Like, Nick is gone and that affects me the most, because I didn't want it to be that way. And some people are going to be like "Well, I don't like it now!" and to them I say fucking goodbye. This is goodbye. Let me be the first to say it, goodbye. Because all I'm doing is just wanting to just play. I just love to play music, and I like people, you know. And there's all kinds of things that get... shoved into that along the way, but that's not alright with me, you know? So, I want to say most of all, like, I'm just going to just show up and play. I'll let everyone else deal with that because I've already dealt with the hard part, you go ahead and deal with the easy part, whether you want to listen or not. And either way; I understand. Because, when it comes to the Queens, whatever everyone else is dealing with, I've dealt with it already, man. So I'll either be drinking with people after the show or not and it's going to be five, five thousand, five million, or five - I don't give a shit. Because I'm really proud of this record and I put a lot into it, I put what I am into it and after that I can't control it. It's not up to me, it's up to you, you know? And I'm okay with that because when I left the studio I knew I loved this stuff and I got to save my friendship, and both of that is a victory, you know? And the rest is up to you, and I'm okay with that too. So let's get it on.

Q: Especially starting off in punk and hardcore like you did, you’re taking a huge risk by constantly expanding your sound, and it’s something you’ve gotten a lot of flack for. Have you reconciled yourselves to that? A: Absolutely. It’s something that we accepted very early on. It really comes from the ethos of being a punk and hardcore band. It was really because we just didn’t give a fuck. In the same way that we were playing punk and hardcore and didn’t give a fuck that anybody liked it, we continued to write and play what we liked and didn’t give a fuck if anybody liked it. Our hope is that people do like it, but if they have an issue with it, it doesn’t matter because we’re doing what makes us happy.

"Well," he said with equanimity, "you see, in my opinion there is no point at all in talking about music. I never talk about music. What reply, then, was I to make to your very able and just remarks? You were perfectly right in all you said. But, you see, I am a musician, not a professor, and I don't believe that, as regards music, there is the least point in being right. Music does not depend on being right, on having good taste and education and all that."

"Indeed. Then what does it depend on?"

"On making music, Herr Haller, on making music as well and as much as possible and with all the intensity of which one is capable. That is the point, Monsieur. Though I carried the complete works of Bach and Haydn in my head and could say the cleverest things about them, not a soul would be the better for it. But when I take hold of my mouthpiece and play a lively shimmy, whether the shimmy be good or bad, it will give people pleasure. It gets into their legs and into their blood. That's the point and that alone. Look at the faces in a dance hall at the moment when the music strikes up after a longish pause, how eyes sparkle, legs twitch and faces begin to laugh. That is why one makes music."

At this point, I don’t need my records to be Number One or sell as many as this person or that person. That’s not fundamentally important — I don’t believe that sustains you.