Quotes by Ben Folds
I don't leave my neighborhood. I don't go anywhere. There are four blocks I live in and there are two coffee shops, one at each end of the block... so I don't do much driving... Some people would say they never see me because I don't go anywhere. I stay in the blue state of Nashville, in my bubble.
– Ben Folds
I start songs all the time. If I weren't so lazy, I would finish them. It's like when I have a deadline I have to. I always feel very lucky that I am forced to make records at certain times. If I was forced to make 2 records a year, I would write twice as many songs. I can't make myself finish something unless I am forced.
– Ben Folds
I was pretty much a dork growing up. Going up in front of a crowd and being an idiot was a relief when I was a kid. But talking to two or three people at once and being myself was impossible. And being myself while singing a song was more than impossible; I would've rather died. I get really nervous and tend to want to be an idiot.
– Ben Folds
Piano's a very dynamic instrument. You can't do those things to it as easily. I carry that loudness with me still, but I've tried to shake it off a little bit, because I want those valleys and peaks. But my playing style evolved in an era of Nirvana. I play much like a guitarist, a much louder, less dynamic sound than I would probably choose, bu that's my accent.
– Ben Folds
The piano is just a different animal. It's expensive, it's big, it's heavy, and it doesn't fit in the mix easily. Everyone grew up with a piano in their living room, so rocking out on the piano was accessible - it wasn't an upper-class thing. Now pianos have become very much a piece of furniture.
– Ben Folds
Was I gung-ho about changing society when I was 18? I don't know about that. When you're 18, you're really into yourself and what's happening to your body. But I definitely had some ideas. This malaise is not confined to America either. I spotted that same attitude in kids in Eastern Europe before the fall of communism.
– Ben Folds
We started playing our first gigs right about the time Kurt Cobain died, and we were playing punk clubs. That's why we were relevant. It was basically acoustic piano with a grunge rhythm section... If we'd sucked, we'd have been relegated to high-art, indie music that would've been well-reviewed. But the better we were, the more competitive we were in the mainstream.
– Ben Folds