Trent Reznor Quotes

The music that I make is built on layers upon layers of musical ideas. I want to keep it fun and fresh to where listeners won't get everything from just one listen. They can go back to it months, weeks, or even years later and hear something that they didn't ever hear before. That's what it's all about.

I didn't really hear any other music other than what my dad was working on until I was 12. My recollection of hearing other music was that I liked some things that I heard but I always thought, 'Where's the rest of it?' It didn't have the same amount of detail or instrumentation or imagination in the arrangements.

My favorite records are not easy - they're not records that reveal everything to you the first time out.

Music is like wine, it ages beautifully - and if you spend enough time you can just sit there and listen to it entirely differently.

There's nothing I really wanted to record more than Bach. It's wonderful music. It's - on a grand scale, there's a lot to it. There are - I can work on it for a long time and keep discovering more things, you know, that surprise me every time.

Just because something is melodic or catchy doesn't mean that it doesn't have depth and substance and progressive sensibilities.

The music that we listen to these days, everything is right there in your face. There's no real mystery. It's not poetic. I want people to think. I want to make people listen to my lyrics.

I want to be enriched by the music I listen to. That's the reason it never really exists in the mainstream. Because that's not what most people are after.

What I was going for in the first two albums I didn't necessarily achieve. Because I was young and because it was my first time out. And the second album was such a 'quickie' sort of 'Let's just get it over with!' But the kind of music I make, there's a lot of subtlety in it. And I think it takes a couple of listens to actually really get it.

What I look for in musicians is a sense of infinity.

'The White Album' is a record I can go back to time and time again, and always find something different that I never noticed or appreciated before.

I listen to music all the time, and I just choose things I like, or things that I've not used before. Sometimes I work with music that's very difficult - that I don't even particularly like, per se, but that is really complex or interesting.

Music is really all about experimentation and lots of trial and error. It's just mind-numbingly boring until you hit on something that works well.

I'd say that it's important for music to be there that gives you a challenge, that rearranges things in your head.

I was listening to a lot of math rock-y type bands do lots of complex stuff and I couldn't figure out how they were doing it. Then I realized that sometimes they were finger tapping, so I started messing around doing it.

You feel the music needs something but you don't know what. So you start searching, fitting, measuring, trying. Every time you try another angle. And sometimes that's frustrating, especially if you don't come up with something for three days.

Music is about listening, the more you play, the more the magic spreads.

Tunings are wonderfully inspiring, and it helps you to write music. If I'm stuck, you know, I change the tuning.

I suppose that's why new music and I go well together, because new music often requires maintaining great rhythm.

I don't like listening to my music, not even new pieces. Generally, they sound pretty much like I expected them to sound, so it's what I wanted, and that's it.

I thought I knew a lot about music. Then you start digging and the deeper you go, the more there is.

We're falling into a place where melody is somewhat lacking in music. Everybody feels like, okay, too much melody or too much harmony, and it kind of goes over people's heads; they don't understand it.

When I was a kid, I had a xylophone, and I thought that was the instrument I wanted to play. I didn't realize it was a toy.

I don't like to talk too much about my music; I like people to just experience it and not worry what I have to say.

With '8 Diagrams,' I just skimmed the surface of musical exploration.