Al Yankovic

“There are a lot of songs that would ostensibly be a good candidate for parody, yet I can't think of a clever enough idea.”

“What kind of morons do you have working at newspapers in Austin that would base an entire review of an artist's performance on whether or not they had a good seat?”

“I think that nerds, if you want to call them that, have only gotten more hip and assimilated into the culture.”

“When I go to my live shows it's often a multigenerational audience, a family bonding experience.”

“You still have Top 40 radio now, but it's 40 different stations. There aren't many hits that everybody knows, and there aren't many real superstars.”

“As a kid, I certainly never thought I would get to spend my life doing something fun.”

“Probably 90 percent of my albums have polka medleys.”

“As my father used to tell me, the only true sign of success in life is being able to do for a living that which makes you happy.”

“It's hard to force creativity and humor.”

“You fake something until you're good at it.”

“Why of course it's unlikely!' I said. 'Oh, by far!The awesome-est things in the world often are!”

“I write and write and write, and then I edit it down to the parts that I think are amusing, or that help the storyline, or I'll write a notebook full of ideas of anecdotes or story points, and then I'll try and arrange them in a way that they would tell a semi-cohesive story.”

“I'm very analytical, I'm very precise.”

“Whenever I do a parody it's not meant to make you hate anybody's music really.”

“I did have a child, and I was reading a lot of picture books to her, but at the same time writing a children's book was something that I'd been wanting to do for many years, pretty much since the start of my career.”

“People never ask people doing serious music, 'Do you ever think about doing funny music?'”

“I don't think there are any new media I'd like to cover.”

“One of the hardest things I've had to deal with in my career is keeping my material topical even though I only release albums every three or four years.”

“I mean, I hate to gloat, but I'm extremely satisfied with my position in life and the way things have worked out for me.”

“I'm still a geek on the inside, that's the important thing.”