Donald Fagen

My style is a little quirky. I can't play as fast as most professional jazz players. ”

My writing is really intuitive. As a kid, I went to school in New Jersey and hung out in New York, so the way kids used to talk got into our earlier songs. ”

I've never been comfortable as a lead performer, and I never wanted to be a singer, particularly. ”

Anthemic rock music is inherently fascist - anything intended to move huge masses of people is politically offensive to me. ”

People are usually afraid to say what's on their mind. ”

I had trouble distinguishing art from life. I don't now, and I feel much better! ”

I took some lessons as a kid but trained myself by ear. I did it the way jazz musicians used to learn years ago, which is to play records and slow them down to figure out the notes. At first I tried to imitate Red Garland, who was my favorite jazz pianist. ”

Popularity has everything to do with business and nothing to do with music. ”

I have a critical nature, in the sense that when I look at something I often look for the flaws. ”

I like it when songs develop in some way. Four minutes usually isn't enough time for something to develop musically. ”