CEDRIC BIXLER-ZAVALA

As corny as it sounds, and not to sound like a hippie, I think there are these spirit forces in nature, and we have to be careful not to offend them.

It makes us feel normal when people think we're being too arty or whatever.

In the information age, you can study all you want and discover the past in order to rediscover the future.

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.

You come to a point in your life where you don't want to just keep repeating yourself.

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.

We have the ability to attract and repel at the same time, which I think you should embrace. Otherwise, you're just going to be, like, this Neil Diamond act.

Our music would probably be a really dark ocean, so you may not know where you are. It's not so literal. It's like a David Lynch movie.

To me, prog-rock is ELP. And for me personally, that stuff is really boring.

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 that's what propelled our band, the fact that we put on something that was visibly attractive to people and then maybe the music comes later. I don't know what it is that people really like about us but that's part of the equation.

I'm a video store guy. I like thumbing through things and holding them.

That romantic notion of a band being a total democracy is just like lying to yourself in the mirror.

I like to think I take care of my body a little bit more, I'm not screaming as much.

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.

I would feel weird if I wasn't able to be longwinded, or have information-overload on our songs.

At the Drive-In was very meat and potatoes - a one-trick pony. Everyone was attracted to us because we put on a good live show.

I've come to realize that at the end of the day, it's only you yourself that creativity comes from.

All I can do is move forward with my music and just be happy that Mars Volta ever happened at all.

I have definitely had a big impactful change since 2010, and it's rough to look in the mirror, but it's such an important thing to do that.

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 want to embrace what the idea of pop music is. Not necessarily the stereotype of pop music; there was a time when you'd say 'pop music' and conjure up images of the Sweet, or Marc Bolan. That, to me, can be avant-garde still.

I gravitated towards Jim Ward, because I knew he was totally into the work aspect of being in a band.

Growing up, I learned the value of sticking up for my brown-skinned friends amongst my white-skinned friends.

To be involved in the subculture of punk rock puts you in a minority.