I consider myself a lyricist first and foremost, but if you get something else out of what I do, that's fine too. I'm not sitting back here telling people how they have to take my stuff. We just want to play music, and hope that people like it. John Darnielle More Quotes by John Darnielle More Quotes From John Darnielle Life is hard, you're tired, and there's disease. The strategy that works for children is to be delighted by the things that delight you. John Darnielle life-is-hard tired children I have a hunger for justice, but art is a place I've always enjoyed being able to be free - to live in worlds that you don't have to be thinking about that all the time. I don't see myself writing Upton Sinclair books. My books are to entertain, although to me, entertainment is to make you feel sadness or to get in touch with your own pain - or fear, or to remember somebody who has gone missing from your life. That's my calling. John Darnielle pain book art You can get really good reads on your dreams if you think of every character in them as actually being you. John Darnielle dream character thinking When all my friends insisted that they were feeling jaded, it struck me as an affected pose. To me, everything is always new. John Darnielle jaded my-friends feelings People talk about songwriting or comedy as creative expression, but life is creative expression. Table-making, even nursing, is extraordinarily creative. John Darnielle nursing expression people There are only two stories: either you go forward or you die. John Darnielle dies stories two There's no such thing as mental illness. We're all mentally ill and we're all haunted by something, and some people manage to find a way to ride it out so that they don't wind up needing extra help. So I think that "mental illness," as a term, is garbage. Everybody is in various states of needing to transcend something. John Darnielle extra-help wind thinking Every place on earth has a frequency. It's not good or bad, it's just the way it is, and if you can attune yourself to that frequency, then you can find comfort in that. John Darnielle earth comfort way I'm kind of a hermit. Left to my own devices, I won't submerge myself in anything further afield than the driveway. John Darnielle hermits devices kind Anything that is within you is a gift. To be able to take possession of that and say, "Whatever it is, I am bigger than it," is to learn to cherish even the hard and painful things. John Darnielle cherish able painful You should avoid seeing too much of yourself anywhere: in the outside world, in others, in the imagined worlds that give you shelter. John Darnielle shelter giving world A novel is a performance you have to plan. John Darnielle plans novel performances I am at a place in my life where the more like a cave I can make my surroundings, the happier I am. John Darnielle surroundings caves i-can The moment where you know the thing you want is ridiculous and pompous and a terrible thing to want anyway. The direction in which you're headed is not the direction you want to go, yet you're going to head that way a while longer cause that's just the kind of person you are. John Darnielle causes want way Everybody experiences reality in a way that's only true for them. John Darnielle reality way It usually happens that I have multiple different projects going on at once, and one can be referencing the other. John Darnielle referencing projects different A bands first albums usually not great. When you made the first album, you had a day job and you were still trying to be serious about it. John Darnielle serious trying jobs Young people like to feel self-righteous, like they're on the right side of things. John Darnielle self sides people The South actually has a very strong tradition of activism. The civil rights movement came from down here! It was black activists demanding that their voices be heard. People say these are red states. No they're not! John Darnielle voice strong rights It's good to be young, but let's not kid ourselves/ It's better to pass on through those years and come out the other side/ With our hearts still beating/ Having stared down demons/ Come back breathing. John Darnielle heart kids years
