Jim James Quotes

Pop changes week to week, month to month. But great music is like literature.

We've always prided ourselves on making a record that we want to feel proud of, ones that are hopefully timeless so they can be around for a long time.

Good music will always be recognized in the end.

The most important thing is to make quality music that will last.

Pop has to exist and it's a great thing.

I see songs not as a commodity used up when the album goes off the charts, which is often the case with pop songs. I see them as a body of work. Life should be breathed into them.

Guitar music or rock n' roll or whatever you want to call it sort of goes away with trends, but it'll never go away completely. It can't die because it's so fundamentally attractive.

I understand what songs like 'Mr Brightside' mean to people. They will last forever.

I worshipped Berry Gordy for the creative dreams he had made come true.

The thought of making work that's easily consumed and quickly forgotten - what's the point? I want my work to be cohesive, to age and improve like old leather.

I saw what Purple meant to people and I still hear it now when I'm in Europe. I'm always shocked that I'm still asked about Purple because it was such a long time ago.

Smiths songs certainly have an astonishing afterlife.

The beauty one can find in art is one of the pitifully few real and lasting products of human endeavor.

I try to make sure that I make music that can stand the test of time.

We're a staple in the American music culture. Like us or not, we're here to stay.

Most of the movies I saw growing up were viewed as totally disposable, fine for quick consumption, but they have survived 50 years and are still growing.

It's rather nice to think that a song such as 'What Kind of Fool Am I?' is a standard that will be around for many, many years.

Dick Clark was a really great influence in my career; he helped me a lot with his whole organization, and they were awesome to me at all different points - but one thing that I really disagreed with him on was when he said that what I do, pop music, is a disposable art form.

A proof of really great art is that it is generally true - it seldom falls into the misapprehensions to which minor art is liable.

Soul music is about longevity and reaching and touching people on a human level - and that's never going to get lost.

When music is crashing around us, when you hear the same five songs on the radio that aren't really saying much, we can always go back to great music. Great music always lives on.

What lists and awards don't measure - and I feel this strongly - is the lasting value of any work of art. They're a snapshot of a moment, and one should always consider their judgments in that context.

Quality is timeless: It will clearly define itself. And so I make reference to and acknowledge things that I feel have been dismissed, trying to restate those musical and cultural elements clearly and vehemently.

Pop music was supposed to be a flash in the pan, but here we are 50 years later and it means something to us, and it always will do. It's incredibly important.

Effortlessly, I feel like my records have longevity.