"We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness....We are monkeys with money and guns."

"The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering. It cheapens and degrades the human experience, when it should inspire and elevate."

"They say that I have no hits, and I'm difficult to work with. And they say that like it's a bad thing."

"Songs are really just very interesting things to be doing with the air."

"I collaborate with my wife on the songs, and every aspect of it, really— composing, and arranging, and recording, all that business. We have a rhythm and a way of working it. It's kind of like borrowing the same ten bucks from somebody over and over again. But when you live together, it makes it a lot easier, the pay back."

"She's been married so many times she's got rice marks all over her face"

"The dog won't bite if you beat Him with a bone"

"(When asked for advice for younger musicians) "Break windows, smoke cigars, and stay up late. Tell 'em to do that, they'll find a little pot of gold.""

"Disneyland is Vegas for children. When I went with the kids, I just about had a stroke. It's the opposite of what they say it is. It's not a place to nurture the imagination. It's just a big clearance sale for useless items. I'm not going back, and the kids won't be allowed to return until they're eighteen, out of the house. And even then, I would block their decision."

"I'm so goddamn horny, the crack of dawn better be careful around me!"

"How do the angels get to sleep / When the Devil leaves his porch light on?"

"I know a place where a royal flush can never beat a pair, and even Thomas Jefferson is On The Nickel over there."

"Don't you know there ain't no devil, there's just God when he's drunk."

"And sometime around 2 AM you end up taking advantage of yourself. Ain't no way around that. Making a scene with a magazine."

"Well, I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy."

"If I exorcise my devils, well, my angels may leave too."

"What's he building in there? We have a right to know."

"If there's one thing you can say about mankind, there's nothing kind about man."

"The piano has been drinking, not me."

"And the things you can’t remember tell the things you can forget, that history puts a saint in every dream."

"I don't have a drinking problem ‘cept when I can't get a drink."

"I really enjoy forgetting. When I first come to a place, I notice all the little details. I notice the way the sky looks. The color of white paper. The way people walk. Doorknobs. Everything. Then I get used to the place and I don't notice those things anymore. So only by forgetting can I see the place again as it really is."

"I try to write about small things. Paper, animals, a house…love is kind of big. I have written a love song, though. In this film, I sing it to a lamp."

"The better the singer's voice is, the harder it is to believe what they're saying. So I turn my weaknesses into an advantage."

"It's not music you would use to get a girl into bed. If anything, you're going to frighten her off."

"It's like 60 Minutes on acid."

"Interviewer: If I gave you fifty dollars, right now, what would you do with it? David Byrne: I would get something to eat."

"I have something to say about the difference between American and European cities, but I forgot what it was. I have it written down at home somewhere."

"All you have to do is touch my hand To show me you understand And something happens to me. That's some kind of wonderful."

"Be awful nice to 'em goin' up, because you're gonna meet 'em all comin' down."

"Politics is developing more comedians than radio ever did."

"Goodnight Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are."

"I was hurt so deep that I made up my mind never to hurt anybody else, no matter what. I never made jokes about anybody's big ears, their stut- terin', or about them bein' off their nut."

"I don't know where it's going, but I'm sticking with it!"

"Everybody wants ta get inta da act!"

"Surrounded by assassins!"

"I'm mortified!"

"That's the conditions that prevail!"

"Don't put no constrictions on da people. Leave 'em ta hell alone."

"Inka dinka doo, a dinka dee, A dinka doo. Oh, what a tune for crooning. Inka dinka doo, a dinka dee A dinka doo. It's got the whole world spooning."

"And it's too late, baby, now it's too late Though we really did try to make it Somethin' inside has died and I can't hide And I just can't fake it."

"Now and forever, you are a part of me And the memory cuts like a knife. Didn't we find the ecstasy, didn't we share the daylight When you walked into my life?Now and forever, I'll remember All the promises still unbroken. And think about all the words between us That never needed to be spoken."

"Only love is real. Everything else illusion Adding to the confusion of the way we connive At being alive. Tracing a line till we can define The thing that allows us to feel. Only love is real."

"Green fields and rolling hills, Room enough to do what we will. Sweet dreams of yestertime Are running though my mind Of a place I left behind. Been so long, I can't remember when, I've been to Canaan and I wanna go back again."

"Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, And sometimes the blues just get a hold of you. Just when you thought you had made it, All around the block people will talk. But I want to give it all that I've got. I just don't want, I don't want to waste it."

"It's going to take some time this time To get myself in shape. I really fell out of line this time, I really missed the gate. The birds on the telephone line, (next time) Are cryin' out to me, (next time) And I won't be so blind next time And I'll find some harmony."

"It seemed that he had fallen into someone's wicked spell And I wept to see him suffer, though I didn't know him well."

"He moved with some uncertainty, as if he didn't know Just what he was there for, or where he ought to go Once he reached for something golden hanging from a tree And his hand come down empty..."

"My life has been a tapestry of rich and royal hue An everlasting vision of the everchanging view A wondrous woven magic in bits of blue and gold A tapestry to feel and see, impossible to hold."

"You can't talk to a man, with a shotgun in his hand."