Mark Kozelek Quotes

It was kind of easier for me to do records that didn't take a year or two years of my life to write and to make.

I wanted to put out a solo record because I was stuck on a major label and sick of it.

It became a question of do I want to be on a label where it could take three years to put out a record instead of putting out three records over the same period of time on my own.

I guess some of today's programming has rubbed off on me because I find myself having to set time around for touring, putting that together and then setting time around for recording.

The plan is to keep on putting out records until someone shows up and tells us to stop.

I love doing third albums. A group makes its first album, and then the record company rushes them into the studio to make their second album. After that, they go, 'Whoa, wait a second.' They get a little more confident. They step back and say, 'Okay, now we're gonna do it.'

The record companies don't give you a chance, like in the old days when they went, 'Here's a pile of money. Go make a good record!'

When me and Eric did songs back in the day, we didn't go and sit down in front of no A&R. We made our album, and then, when we finished, we handed it in, and then we picked the best song for the first single.

I have all these computers and keyboards and synthesizers, and I rattle away. For instance, with The Lion King I wrote over four hours worth of tunes, and they were really pretty -but totally meaningless. So in the end I came up with material I liked. We worked on The Lion King for four years, but I wasn't toying until the last three-and-a-half weeks properly. On Crimson Tide, on the other hand, I just went in and within seconds I knew what I wanted.

I also feel like I've learned over the years what is not important, and that is also great: to know what is pointless to spend your energy on, to be more specific.

The wisest are the most annoyed at the loss of time.

Life is too short to wonder where you hid your waffle maker.

I don't have time to distinguish between the unfortunate and the incompetent.

I don't have time for any nonsense.

Our Lord was 30 years preparing for 3 years of service. The modern stamp is to spend 3 hours preparing for 30 years of service.

I was like just writing and writing and then I kinda developed my sound. And then, my managers were like, "Okay, we're gonna try to get a deal." And then first it was Interscope, and then it was Atlantic. And then, I ended up signing with Atlantic, but it was like a long process, a really long... it was A LONG PROCESS. I feel like it took me two years to do it.

Do each day all that can be done that day. You don't need to overwork or to rush blindly into your work trying to do the greatest possible number of things in the shortest possible time. Don't try to do tomorrow's or next week's work today. It's not the number of things you do, but the quality, the efficiency of each separate action that count. To achieve this "habit of success," you need only to focus on the most important tasks and succeed in each small task of each day.

I'm a beat hoarder. I'll record five songs in a year and I still hoard beats.

If you don't have a record deal, you've got to be a record company.

The only time I really become discouraged is when I think of all the things I would like to do and the little time I have in which to do them.

I was told I got 10 measly minutes, but just in case, I brought 13 hours worth of material.

I got no time for the jibba-jabba.

Saving time, it seems, has a primacy that's too rarely examined.

Oh god, I wish. I really wish. If I'm time-poor, which I usually am, that's the first thing to go. And I know it shouldn't be, I know I should be really regular, but I like to get it done as quickly as possible.

No man can promise himself even fifty years of life, but any man may, if he please, live in the proportion of fifty years in forty-let him rise early, that he may have the day before him, and let him make the most of the day, by determining to expend it on two sorts of acquaintance only-those by whom something may be got, and those from whom something maybe learned.