I think most of the work of songwriting is thinking of great phrases - I'm addicted, always on the hunt for a really great phrase. Ezra Furman More Quotes by Ezra Furman More Quotes From Ezra Furman People get stigmatised for their bodies and for their differences. Then those people become very vulnerable. Ezra Furman become get differences people Chuck Berry invented rock 'n' roll. He was one of the best songwriters of the 20th century. Ezra Furman roll rock he best We music fans go to shows for transcendence; it's like being called to prayer. Ezra Furman go music fans prayer We punk fans have so much energy to give to the fight against injustice, i.e. the abuse of the poor by the rich, i.e. climate change. Ezra Furman fight climate-change rich change Learning that someone is gay, queer, trans, doesn't tell you much by itself. They could be any kind of person aside from that particular slice of identity. Ezra Furman you learning gay identity I want to be a force that tries to revive the human spirit rather than crush it, to open possibilities rather than close them down. Sometimes a passionate negativity is the best way to do that. Ezra Furman down best sometimes way I don't think I'll ever be able to fully explain the way that the Velvet Underground's records opened a door in my head. But it has something to do with Lou Reed as a mythic figure: a person who fitted no category, who defied limits and trends and definitions. Ezra Furman door think limits way I was a suburban kid who fancied myself somehow intellectual. I was into punk rock but I couldn't get into the subcultural signifiers of dyed hair, safety pins and torn denim. Being a punk seemed like a new set of rules that I wasn't interested in having to follow. Ezra Furman new myself safety hair Lou Reed was an ideal figure to me. He was bisexual, like me, and seemed to inhabit an ambiguous middle place on the masculine-feminine spectrum. Ezra Furman place like me bisexual I've always been drawn to ambiguity in pop music. Ezra Furman been always pop-music music I've been writing songs since I was a teenager, so one kind of song I've written a lot is about, I don't know, teen angst feelings - feeling unsure of yourself and immature. Ezra Furman teen yourself feeling song I'm not an actor. Ezra Furman actor I'm not so adept at social media. It's not my forte. Ezra Furman adept social-media media social Listening to songs is like eating and writing songs is like vomiting. You're putting a ton of stuff in, it combines in unpredictable ways, and comes back out in a big mess. Ezra Furman back you eating writing More visibility is more power, but more vulnerability. Ezra Furman more vulnerability visibility power I honestly feel like I've been mostly toiling in obscurity until a little bit after 'Day Of the Dog' came out. Ezra Furman feel day like dog If you're trying to deal with being a marginalized person and trying to confront a larger population that isn't the same as you, you can be friendly about it, and invite everybody in, or you can be angry about it and be hostile and attack the systems that you want to destabilize. Ezra Furman person you angry trying