The Joker is my favorite villain of all time: You don’t know his past; you just know what his plans are.
The Weeknd
Environment is very important to me. Sometimes I have to perform during the day for festivals, and my music does not work in the daytime. It is nighttime music.
The Weeknd
For me, bomber jackets are smart, but they are also street and have a lot of attitude.
The Weeknd
Going home helps the content.
The Weeknd
The whole ‘enigmatic artist’ thing, I just ran with it.
The Weeknd
I want to be remembered as iconic and different.
The Weeknd
I was very camera shy. People like hot girls, so I put my music to hot girls and it just became a trend. The whole ‘enigmatic artist’ thing, I just ran with it. No one could find pictures of me.
The Weeknd
House of Balloons’ was special because I had no deadlines, and nobody knew me, so there were no expectations. Spent a year making it perfect. Every song had at least, like, 7 different versions to them before picking the right one.
The Weeknd
I’m the most boring person to talk to.
The Weeknd
Marriage is scary to me, man.
The Weeknd
My inspiration is R. Kelly, Michael Jackson, and Prince – for the vocals, anyway.
The Weeknd
The Internet, man, is a beautiful thing.
The Weeknd
Literally wrote ‘Starboy’ in 30 minutes.
The Weeknd
‘House of Balloons’ was actually supposed to have more songs than it does.
The Weeknd
I’m trying to get to Mars before everyone else.
The Weeknd
I usually don’t like to ‘spoon feed’ my audience, because I grew up idolizing story tellers who tell stories using symbolism, so it was in my nature to do the same.
The Weeknd
The last thing you want is to not be recognized for all of the hard work you put in.
The Weeknd
Nothing is stopping me from doing what I love to do.
The Weeknd
The Joker that Christopher Nolan created in ‘The Dark Knight’ had the scar across his mouth, and the first time you heard his explanation for it, he makes you believe that’s how he got it. But then you get into the film, and every time he talks about his scar, it’s a totally different story.
The Weeknd
For an Ethiopian mother, if you have a chubby kid, it means you’re doing something good.
The Weeknd
I knew the second I finished the first record – ‘House Of Balloons’ – and had all this material leftover that a trilogy would be best.
The Weeknd
Bragging just sounds good, man.
The Weeknd
The mind of a 19-year-old is very different from the mind of a 26-year-old. You grow. You get into better relationships. You experience more, meet more people, better people. But when you’re in a dark hole at an earlier point in your life – you write about the mindset you’re in at that moment.
The Weeknd
For my generation, the bomber jacket is like a replacement for the suit jacket. It’s a piece that men wear every day, and it’s something that I would wear for any occasion, whether it’s on the street or going to an awards ceremony.
The Weeknd
I was 14, and I fell in love with Pink Floyd.
The Weeknd
I get naturally uncomfortable when I’m put under a magnifying glass.
The Weeknd
Prince turned experimental music into pop music. ‘When Doves Cry,’ the whole ‘Purple Rain’ soundtrack – he was inspired by the Cocteau Twins and new wave pop and brought it into R&B when he first started, and then it became this cool, next-level, kind of hard-to-digest music. Which is what I felt ‘House of Balloons’ was.
The Weeknd
I’m all about evolution. I’m the first person to judge myself.
The Weeknd
From when I was born to when I was 21, I never left Toronto. That’s why I’m such a city cat.
The Weeknd
Thursday’ is a conceptual album. Whatever that situation was, I spent the whole album focusing on that situation.
The Weeknd
I mean… in life… what relationship is easy?
The Weeknd
Music is like film to me.
The Weeknd
My purpose is to make exciting music, and I feel like I’ll be doing that for the rest of my life, so there’s no pressure.
The Weeknd
I want to produce the music to a movie that I’m working on, like what Prince did with ‘Purple Rain.’
The Weeknd
I love trying new things.
The Weeknd
To be recognized for the hard work my team and I put into ‘Starboy’ is an honor.
The Weeknd
I just want to keep pushing the envelope without it feeling forced.
The Weeknd
Kiss Land’ is the story after ‘Trilogy’; it’s pretty much the second chapter of my life. The narrative takes place after my first flight; it’s very foreign, very Asian-inspired. When people ask me, ‘Why Japan?’ I simply tell them it’s the furthest I’ve ever been from home. It really is a different planet.
The Weeknd
I just love Bowie. I think he’s the ultimate inventor.
The Weeknd
When I was born, that was the music my mother was listening to. Michael Jackson is a third parent to me.
The Weeknd
I’ve grown accustomed to hotels and drastic climate change.
The Weeknd
Going to a therapist is not something you do when you’re growing up as a street kid in Toronto.
The Weeknd
I couldn’t ever go back home without being something. I probably would never have gone back home. That was definitely a big motivation. To get back home, and not empty-handed.
The Weeknd
The effect of music on fashion has been immense, especially hip-hop and urban music.
The Weeknd
At one point, I didn’t care. Now I want as many people to hear my music as possible.
The Weeknd
Let’s be honest. Canada wasn’t ever cool.
The Weeknd
I don’t believe in icons.
The Weeknd
Trilogy’ was more of a claustrophobic body of work. Before it was released, I hadn’t left my city for 21 years, and I had never been on a plane, not once. I spent my entire life on one setting; that’s probably why pieces of the album feel like one long track, because that’s what my life felt like. It felt like one long song.
The Weeknd
When you’re traveling constantly, every day you become inspired, and it shows in my work, sonically, lyrically, visually. Conversations with women with different accents and stories told in those accents. I like to create characters based on different people I’ve met, and relationships. I like to tell stories loosely based on real-life events.
The Weeknd
I make good music for long journeys.
The Weeknd
Once you’ve changed who you are or who you’ve portrayed in your music, the fans, they’ll catch it… Once I feel like the world knows me for anything else but my music, then I feel like I failed.
The Weeknd
I feel like the way I was raised was to be able to see through all the titles in this world – from religion to race.
The Weeknd
