Alex Kapranos

No matter what you do, if you're trying to create something new, your environment has a massive impact on you. ”

Although they might not admit it, I think girls are very aware of the impact that they're having. But they never feel it themselves, and it's impossible to explain. It's like trying to tell a blind person what yellow is. ”

I really want it to have an impact on the world. I want to be in a town on the other side of the world, and somebody walks up and says, 'That music you made in Glasgow, I listened to it every day, and it moved me.' ”

Ambition is sneered at by some bands. It seems like a pretty good thing to me. ”

A lot of food criticism has a similar flavor to it, and I'm probably going to write about it in a different way. ”

The best songwriting comes from being as creative as you can and editing it down to the good bits, essentially. ”

Arty. To me the word's got as much venom associated with it as 'wacky'. ”

Boredom or being sick of what you've done before is a big part of being in a band. ”

Of course, there's a certain type of person who feels that anything which becomes mainstream has to be rejected immediately. And that's part of the indie-alternative snobbery and hierarchy and elitism. ”

A lot of bands have the enthusiasm kicked out of them by playing really dreary pub venues that just churn bands through. ”