A biography for Donald Fagenhasn’t been written yet.
“I've never been comfortable as a lead performer, and I never wanted to be a singer, particularly.”
“When you get a groove going, time flies.”
“Randy Newman seemed like an even worse singer than me. I liked Ray Charles, Levi Stubbs, Jack Jones, Joe Tex, Wilson Pickett.”
“I like it when songs develop in some way. Four minutes usually isn't enough time for something to develop musically.”
“What do you do with what you're given, and how do you transform it into something worthwhile?”
“My writing is really intuitive. As a kid, I went to school in New Jersey and hung out in New York, so the way kids used to talk got into our earlier songs.”
“Popularity has everything to do with business and nothing to do with music.”
“My style is a little quirky. I can't play as fast as most professional jazz players.”
“I had trouble distinguishing art from life. I don't now, and I feel much better!”
“I took some lessons as a kid but trained myself by ear. I did it the way jazz musicians used to learn years ago, which is to play records and slow them down to figure out the notes. At first I tried to imitate Red Garland, who was my favorite jazz pianist.”
“Anthemic rock music is inherently fascist - anything intended to move huge masses of people is politically offensive to me.”
“People are usually afraid to say what's on their mind.”
“We're not getting any younger.”
“I have a critical nature, in the sense that when I look at something I often look for the flaws.”