It's been the work that has carried me and I never wanted to rest on my laurels or go back and do what I done before.
Spend too much time alone with your own words, and your writing grows anemic, in dire need of a transfusion.
Most filmmakers give me the reference of my own songs; doing the same thing over and over again doesn't push you to do better.
Finally, I've reached a place where if I'm working with an artist, they allow me to just do whatever I feel. Growing up, it was like, 'We want another 'Peaches and Cream.' Then you realise... why would you want a 2001 Mercedes Benz when I'm making 2018 Benzes?
The best way to renew thought is to go outside the human imagination.
I'm just not somebody who can sit around doing nothing, and all of us in the Foo Fighters have our own things outside of the band. I'm not going to use the cliche that those outlets bring us back fresh and with new ideas, but what I will say is that it keeps us all feeling free - and that creative freedom is a very positive thing.
When you get as old as I am, you kind of believe there's nothing new under the sun, but there's always a fresh way of looking at something. That's why I love working with young people. They remind you of things you used to know and have since forgotten.
The thing that I'm trying to accomplish is to tell the stories and my feelings in ways that are relatable. But at the same time, I'm so tired of hearing the same old crap. Bring some freshness if you can.
I just go my own way. If my agent calls and presents me with something, and I find it refreshing or illuminating, yeah, I'll do it.
One thing I don't understand is how people want you to replicate your past successes. Being an artist should be about freedom and not just becoming one thing, because I think that's terrible and boring.
I take a firm stand against sequels. My industry brethren are a little shocked at how firmly I'm committed to not doing sequels.
The world is not so much in need of new thoughts as that when thought grows old and worn with usage it should, like current coin, be called in, and, from the mint of genius, reissued fresh and new.
When you are pushing yourself to not go back to the same well, you're gonna come up with something different, or you'll find songs that are different.
The idea of going on tour for the rest of my life with old works is not that exciting. As an artist I definitely think the work in future is going to be better than the work in the past, otherwise why do it?
Most artists try to avoid cliches, but it's pretty hard to avoid them if you yourself end up being one.
I have to go someplace where I can soak myself in a creative atmosphere.
I think that the job of poetry, its political job, is to refresh the idea of justice, which is going dead in us all the time.
I'm not running out of inspiration.
