Top 115 Quotes & Sayings by Flying Lotus

Reading music has opened up me up so much. I've been experimenting for so long and trying to make sense of things just from my ears. It takes forever. Now I can get where I want much quicker.

I had the whole 'Ghostbusters' toy set with the firehouse and the car and everything. Sometimes I'd use my grandpa's camera and make little stop-motion cartoons with those toys - I was definitely a weird kid.

I've always been a techie kind of person.

'Cosmogramma' is basically the studies that map out the universe and the relations of heaven and hell.

I know what it's like listening to Aphex Twin driving down the beach.

I can't let darkness be what guides my decisions. I can't let that be what guides how I treat people. I can't let that be what drives my art, either.

It's tough when you're an artist because you get to go around the world and make a lot of friends, but guess what? One day, all these people that you love are going to die, from DJ Mehdi to DJ Dusk to J Dilla to Austin Peralta to DJ Rashad.

People are not able to just make music anymore; we have to do things that don't necessarily make the art any better. But that's just how it is.

I'm really grateful for all of the things I've had to learn along the way, you know? I don't know if I would want to say anything to my younger self. That way, you know, it really means something. If you have to go through it all, it really means something.

The Internet makes it possible for everyone to collaborate.

We're all trying so hard to be beautiful, but the people in 'Kuso' are trying so hard to be disgusting.

I'd love to work with Drake. I got Drake beats.

I don't like to brag about it, but there are people I've worked with at the start of their career, and they've all become very, very successful.

I feel like part of my journey as a filmmaker is to tell different stories, whether they are just a black perspective on things that aren't necessarily hood movies, or Tyler Perry movies or Ava DuVernay movies. Love all those people, but that whole thing has been sowed up already.

I love Dilla, and who knows where this beat thing would be without him.

I definitely learned to communicate with other musicians better. I used to feel so intimidated by guys who can read notes, like, 'Oh my God, they're gonna think I'm not even gonna be able to sit at the table.' But I've come to see that a lot of these musicians don't know how to read music either, and that made me feel good.

George Clinton is the best storyteller in the world.

I like to stay in the space of creativity, and I want to go towards that all the time.

The Soft Machine's 'Volume Two' inspired me heavily. That record just feels like it was all done in the same breath. It's genius, and it's silly at times. But I love the fact that every time I listen to it, I listen from the beginning and want to play it out.

Thundercat put me on to George Duke.

I believe there's more than this - that maybe, when we die, our brains conjure up some kind of shutdown experience, and that's what people try to sum up as the afterlife.

I was first inspired to make music by my cousin Oran. He was making music on an old Mac II by himself in his little lab, and I just started taking up after him. He was the first person to put a machine in front of me to work on. He was like my big brother, someone who I looked up to.

For me, being 10 years old and seeing 'Jurassic Park' for the first time blew my mind. I want music to feel like that.

I played saxophone for a while when I was a kid.

It's okay to not be working all the time and to be gentle on yourself when you're not. When it feels like you're losing that inspiration - or you're in a rut, not making stuff, and your head gets all weird - be gentle on yourself. Just ease into things naturally. But you still have to ease into it: you still have to sit in the chair.

Whenever it gets a little cold in L.A., it gives me an excuse to light my fireplace. You could stare at that joint for, like, a cool two hours. It's entrancing.

All of the Flying Lotus records are exploring similar themes: These questions in my mind about what's next and what's beyond.

Thundercat, specifically, is insane. I'm always surprised at the things he comes up with when we're jamming out together. I gotta try to keep up with him and his ideas, be able to respond without speaking, and come through with some more music. He challenges me to keep it musical and not so computer.

I'm not the kind of person who's always out at the club if I don't have to be. I like chilling. I think that comes across in my music.

I don't sit around listening to beats all day. There's so many producers, and so much of it is derivative.

I wouldn't want to get involved with a game that's a stinker - I can smell one of those a mile away.

I actually really liked the music to the 'Friday the 13th' Nintendo game. I still listen to it all the time. I sampled it in a couple records, too. It's hypnotic and dark but also really pretty.

Before I started Brainfeeder, there were rumblings in our own circle about creating a label for us all. Then I started to see all these other ones from Europe try to capitalise on the scene. It didn't make sense to me that there were all these people who were trying to build on something that was in our backyard.

If I work with Bjork, then I'll be a happy soul, man.

I was a real big fan of Lil Wayne when he first came out.

I found so many reasons to call it 'You're Dead!' - not just because I wanted to make this album about the journey through death. I was watching the music scene that I came up with kind of go stale and watching the lights go out on a lot of my friends.

When I got into music, that was another way to be by myself.

I do think your environment really plays into how you create. I lived in San Francisco for a bit, and I felt like I lived in the Matrix - so my music had that paranoid-of-the-outside sound to it.

Kendrick is a true genius artist.

If I see a cop, it's not like, 'Oh, there's a cop who's gonna keep me safe.' It's more, 'There's a cop who might be having a bad day, so don't make eye contact.'

I never leave L.A. for too long. I'm not one of those that go on a tour of the whole world. I probably should be, but I'm not.

I'm just a fan of art and culture.

I get homesick driving to the grocery store.

I am a big cinema nerd! I've absorbed a lot of films.

I'm so thankful that I had music to turn to in the dark times and be able to understand myself through it.

I like Philip Glass. I think he's made some really great contributions to his field. I love his style of playing - it's very loop-style.

When I was in middle school, that's when I first started making beats. I was maybe 14, 16, something like that.

There are things I've seen and experienced in this world - things they don't talk about in too many books.

The producer role attracts introverts. Making music on your computer is so appealing to someone who just sits in their room all day.

If I have to be 'the experimental guy' or whatever, then I'll roll with it.

When it comes to art in general now, we've become so aware of our influence. We know when people are listening, when people are watching. It's not healthy. We start creating with that in the background of our mind. I think it's ruined my mind.

Sometimes I feel evil!

I don't want to do one of those records where it's like a compilation of a bunch of all sorts of rappers on my beats. I don't find those to be focused albums.

In high school, I was that guy who was trying to be cool with everybody, but I never really had a core group of friends.

With every album that I do, I try to feature a new instrument or sound.

People don't really care to be around you when you're going through tough times.

I took to the synthesizer. My cousin had some synthesizers, and I'd always make stuff on those things.

I don't have a great story, but I love Boards of Canada. I didn't get into it when it was happening; I got into it later on.

I'm a geek, man.

Dilla could flip a boring record and make you feel like you were flying.