As soon as I got into music, I tried to be a working, real artist who gets paid for what he does, who doesn't have a day job.

- Frank Black

I've got a small, loyal audience, which is great. And I appreciate that. They're there for me every time.

- Frank Black

They're pretty good actually, Hall & Oates. I gotta give them credit. They got a lot of toe-tappers.

- Frank Black

I certainly have gotten caught up in the music business at various times in my life, mostly because you want to get along with whatever record company you're dealing with. I don't want to be flaky. I don't want to be some temperamental, hard-to-work-with musician.

- Frank Black

I don't make records that way, where I'm trying to please the marketplace or anything. Not because I have anything against that, it's just never been a part of my aesthetic, even when I was with the Pixies.

- Frank Black

I think everyone should sell whatever product they want to sell for whatever price they want to sell it for, but ultimately the market will dictate what it is and people will have to charge less money for everything. Record companies have been overcharging people for way too long and now this is the trouble that they're in.

- Frank Black

They're a different generation, those kids; kids that are under the age of twelve. They're not that impressed by rock music, you know what I mean? They're like, it's cool and everything, but whatever. They're just as impressed by YouTube.

- Frank Black

You should never rely on interviews with musicians as being factual. Most of them are mangled and even have made up stuff in them, that is to say, made up stuff by the writer or editor.

- Frank Black

The dumber half of the audience - whether they're male or female, and a lot of them are male - for some reason responds very quickly to the feminine voice. How can I put it? They kind of instantly react to the female voice in a positive way quicker than they would the male voice.

- Frank Black

It's sour grapes, I admit, I want to be more famous so people are examining my work couplet by couplet, you know what I mean? That's the level where I want to go.

- Frank Black

But the truth is that critics are by definition critical. That's their job.

- Frank Black

I can remember back as far as age 8, performing with the Boston Folk Song Society. It was a Woody Guthrie song.

- Frank Black

I have two step-kids and one of my own on the way. That's three college funds.

- Frank Black

I listen to Neil Young and jazz and classical stations and, if my girlfriend's driving, it tends to be Hall & Oates.

- Frank Black

My most cryptic, strange songs might be my most personal, but that isn't how people are going to receive them, because they don't know the code.

- Frank Black

Bob Dylan is quite a songwriter, and a great singer and musician. I won't bother with comparing myself to him, but I will say that I heard his records at a very young age and I still listen to all his records.

- Frank Black

I don't want to do children's music. I write kids songs, but the kids songs I write are for my kids - like when I'm putting them to bed. We sing some song that we made up but I don't want to make a record like that.

- Frank Black

It's obvious you shouldn't steal, kill or be cruel.

- Frank Black

I'm not saying that people have to listen to rock music. It's a great, cool thing and it can really be liberating for a lot of people but, hey, so can Charles Dickens so I'm not going to judge.

- Frank Black

I'm an untrained musician. Untrained musicians don't really have any music theory, they don't have a lot of rules. We break the rules, but it's mostly because we don't know what the rules are. It's easy for us to go to certain places, so I'm not surprised that a lot of people were amused by my songwriting style.

- Frank Black