I know it's a cliché to say I write for myself, but I write for myself. John Darnielle More Quotes by John Darnielle More Quotes From John Darnielle I like a lot of hardcore, but it's just a genre about which I don't have much to say. It's kind of a thing where, unless you're active in the hardcore community, what could you have to say of value about it? It resists criticism because it's not just a style but an entrance into several different worlds of ideas- political, philosophical, societal. The music is really only part of the whole scene. In that sense, the music doesn't change much because it shouldn't: It needs to be there as a signal that you're entering into a certain discursive mode, maybe. John Darnielle philosophicalpoliticalcommunity I always worry that I'm a dilettante: I know something about lots of things but don't have exhaustive knowledge of much. Take dance music: I like enough of it and its history to be able to say a word or two about this or that record, but I'm nobody's authority. I couldn't name more than a couple of good drum'n'bass acts, and I have no idea what's big in the dance world right now. John Darnielle coupleworryworld I don't understand being idle; I don't have an idle setting. I probably should develop one. John Darnielle idlesettingsshould In the present political situation, it's an interesting phenomenon to look at: what is the appeal of an autocratic leader? Why do people want somebody who yells at them? For most of us, that's so hard to understand. Who wants that? I think there are a lot of people for whom that fulfills some kind of need. John Darnielle peopleinterestingthinking You're not really going to know what a place is like 'til you've lived there a few years - you sort of just have to go with your gut. John Darnielle guts What I like is horror movies, including '80s slasher movies that politically I have all kinds of problems with. Which is an interesting balance, because I have this leftist puritan strain that, well, if you like something that goes against your politics, maybe you should train yourself not to like it. But I know that I like horror movies and that's what I watch when I get a moment. John Darnielle balancekindinteresting When you know where somebody is, you know the most important thing about them. John Darnielle important-thingsimportantknows When I became conscious of being a person, when I was very small, I knew that I was from Indiana, but I had never seen Indiana. I was born there, but we moved when I was, like, a year old. I always had a sense of a place that was far away from where I was. I would research it and find out about it and I remember on Christmas morning I used to always call Indiana to find out what the weather was like; to see if it was snowing or not. John Darnielle weathermorningyears I think grief is a huge subject; it's one of the things that everybody is going to confront in one way or another. There's been a lot of books written about how Americans have an odd way of trying to defer grief or minimize the need to grieve. People used to have a lot more ritual grief in their lives. For the most part, we think of it as a strictly temporal process: you grieve for a time and then you're over [it], but it's also a spatial process. It travels across a map. John Darnielle griefbookthinking I don't really have any position to complain about my job. Yeah, every job has its moments like, "Ah, you know, it's Wednesday." But I'm blessed. I love my work. John Darnielle blessedcomplainingjobs I did a lot of music criticism. I don't think much of it was any good. I think I wanted to show off a lot when I was younger. Now I just want people to enjoy the story. If it were possible to publish anonymously, that would be awesome. John Darnielle criticismpeoplethinking Men tend to dominate whatever public discourse they participate in, and another big part of feminism is to let women have their say. Men's voices can be welcome at the table, but there is a time and a place, and maybe it's now, for men to make a little less noise, make their needs less known, and listen to the needs of others. John Darnielle welcomefeminismmen As important as politics are to me, the life and the spirit of people's emotions are much more important. People live real lives where they love and grieve and feel pain and joy and that is a whole separate sphere. All that political stuff, I believe in it strongly, but not as strongly as I believe that at some point you or someone is going to need a song to sit with and comfort them in a hard time. John Darnielle painrealsong People don't tend to notice, but in the past 10 years especially there's been a lot of growth in how I write songs and what goes into them. You can listen to Mountain Goats from 1991 to 2007 and never hear a seventh chord. In 2007 or 2008, I started working on the piano to grow as a songwriter. I started throwing major sevens in and sixes and more interesting stuff. John Darnielle writingsongpast I make up stories that take place in real space with real people. If I could convert this into a technique for experimental novels, I might really be onto something. John Darnielle novelrealpeople There are stylists I really love. I'm a huge Joan Didion fan - if I wrote something that she might like, then I'd feel very proud. I want the action to move as quickly as it does in A Book of Common Prayer, where one thing bonks right into another very quickly. John Darnielle prayerbookmoving I wrote short stories when I was a teenager, but they weren't any good and I kinda knew it. John Darnielle short-storyteenagerstories I was 14 or 15 when I discovered poetry, and I pretty much stopped writing prose until Master of Reality. John Darnielle masterswritingreality Over the past 40 years, the tradition of Southern progressivism has been somewhat successfully erased by right-wing revisionist historians. John Darnielle wingspastyears Labor for a lot of people has a negative connotation. But not for me. I always want to be working. John Darnielle wantpeoplenegative
