It's hard to say if actual places really affect the way you write. Sufjan Stevens More Quotes by Sufjan Stevens More Quotes From Sufjan Stevens I have a lot of friends who have hula-hoops, it's like a mixture of dance and athletics and exercise, meditation. It's a healthy hobby I think. I can do a few tricks, I can hoop from my neck and shoulders, and I can do a few moves, a few tricks! I can walk through the hoop whilst it's spinning. I feel like there's definitely an interest in promoting the hula-hoop as an important pastime! Sufjan Stevens exercisemovingthinking I don't really have a domestic inclination. Even my apartment has a semblance of a storage facility. It's just stacks, there are no bookshelves, just books and piles of stamp collections and weird little sewing and knitting projects. Sufjan Stevens knittinglittlesbook Tuesday night at the Bible study we lift our hands and pray over your body, but nothing ever happens. Sufjan Stevens tuesdaynighthands The Internet is manic. It's very strange. I don't think it's healthy. They should outlaw posting comments! It's a bummer to go somewhere to get information or buy tickets and you encounter profanity everywhere you go. Sufjan Stevens encountershealthythinking It's traumatic to meditate on the availability of information through the Internet, or the way we perceive the world as a result. People don't experience things totally or viscerally anymore. It's all through representation, be it a record on YouTube or a post on a blog. Sufjan Stevens availabilityrecordspeople Yes, the kingdom of Christianity and the Church has been one of the most destructive forces in history, and there are levels of bastardization of religious beliefs. But the unique thing about Christianity is that it is so amorphous and not reductive to culture or place or anything. It's extremely malleable. Sufjan Stevens churchuniquereligious My siblings and I were raised like tenants, to be honest. There was a total absence of intimacy in my family, though there was still a great deal of camaraderie among the kids. Things were set up almost like a business, and it had to be managed that way because we were really poor, and there were a lot of mouths to feed. Sufjan Stevens siblinghonestkids That's really where my heart is, unfortunately - I'm less interested in songwriting and more into just making noise. Sufjan Stevens my-heartnoiseheart An imaginary baby is so much easier than a real baby. No diapers to change. Sufjan Stevens diapersrealbaby I'm always hearing music in terms of what I can take out of it, and I think I've always listened like that. I have a hard time just listening for pleasure. I'm much less about instinct, and more of a utilitarian listener. Sufjan Stevens hard-timeslisteningthinking Fiction has always been a thorn in my side, because I've always wanted to be a writer but I can't seem to really do it. Sufjan Stevens sideswantedfiction I've always been obsessed with electronics and using computers and software. It's always been part of my vernacular. Sufjan Stevens electronicsobsessedcomputer I'm from the generation that's always been recording, from the very beginning. I learned to play the guitar on the four-track. I started listening to music at a time when people were doing recording at home, when the discussion about songwriting correlated to the discussion about producing and engineering. I think that's a description of my generation. Sufjan Stevens guitarhomethinking My Dad used to say that the balance of the world relied on all of the monks who were living outside of society in creative isolation. I don't quite understand the ascetic life or the private life or the monastic private life. But I definitely understand privacy's value. Sufjan Stevens balancedadcreative Growing up on the border there, we were always frustrated with people's pronunciations of towns in Michigan, and people mispronouncing Illinois. There are all these Native American words that no one really knows how to pronounce. Sufjan Stevens illinoisgrowing-upnative-american My music is just about story telling. I don't have much to say, and I'm not trying to change anyone's mind. I'm just singing through conviction about what I love and what I care about, starting with the very small. Sufjan Stevens singingmindtrying I was feeling privileged and self-conscious about my life as a musician, which feels self-absorbed. I can't help it, I am a musician. This is what I do. Sufjan Stevens musicianselffeelings I think of the saddest thing I can and then add a sick dog to that. If I think of a sick dog from the beginning, I just stop there. Sufjan Stevens sickdogthinking It's a mystical quality of music, that music isn't really concrete, and it's communicating abstractions about imaginary worlds. At least, my music's like that. It's not real. It's unreal, it's all fabrication. To write a song about Obama would suddenly break the spell. Sufjan Stevens realwritingsong I feel like the Internet needs to be disarmed in some way. There needs to be a philosophical undermining of the Internet. We take it too seriously and too literally. For a reference we go to Wikipedia, which is full of inaccuracies and misinformation. It's kind of beautiful - it's all the product of imagination; it's not reality at all. Sufjan Stevens philosophicalbeautifulreality
