Ryan Ross

“I can't expect everybody to appreciate what we do. Our stage shows especially have been kind of polarizing. Either you went with it or you didn't, and you thought we were being pretentious. Personally, I think it's kind of boring when I watch a band that doesn't do anything to make it their own.”

“Even when we were stuck touring, earning $100 a day, I never thought I'd even make it that far.”

“Whenever I'd go anywhere with my dad - in his 1980 burgundy Dodge Ram - he'd always listen to mix tapes of country-music stars like Garth Brooks, Clint Black and Willie Nelson. Those were the first songs I ever learned the words to.”

“Most songs on the radio are so straightforward and it just doesn't open up people's minds.”

“To be honest, the search for a label was really weird, because some of the labels that you wouldn't expect to care about stuff like radio formats were the ones that did care. They were like, 'Yeah, we love this record, but what are we going to play on the radio?' And I was like, 'You don't have bands on the radio.'”

“I've been studying people - a homeless guy in Scotland, a blind accordion player in London - and they've inspired the lyrics I've been writing.”

“Everything is so computerized these days and it's all edited and everything. Everything sounds so perfect, and we just want to be a band that sounds like a band.”

“Some of our favorite bands are, like, Third Eye Blind and Counting Crows, and stuff like Danny Elfman and Jon Brion movie scores.”

“In Japan, the way they act at shows is very different from home because they don't yell, they clap for about 10 seconds after the song and then it's completely silent.”

“Don't get me wrong, The Beatles are one of our all-time favourite bands, but there's a lot more we were influenced by.”

“When we were writing for Panic whether we knew it or not, having that name over the songs we were trying to do made me second guess things and change things. I started to go against my instincts.”

“I'm usually the bad guy. That's how it always seems to be.”

“Some aspects of the fame are annoying, but at the end of the day it's something we're most grateful for. It's certainly opened the door to a whole new batch of opportunities.”

“Dropping the exclamation point was our way of drawing a line in the sand. We have a new record and we feel like a new band. We were all tired of it, and we went ahead and got rid of it.”

“I just couldn't keep on trying to please people. It was hindering my creative output, and I had to be honest with myself.”

“I've noticed that things aren't bad all the time. So I've tried to write songs that people will want to hear when they're getting off work rather than something that's going to bring them down.”

“When I was about six, I was kind of a cowboy. I'd dress up in boots, straps, hat and bandanna, and my dad would take us to the rodeo.”

“It's nice to be home - I go to the same old sandwich shop around the corner, I go to the movies, I do what I like to do.”

“I forgot that being in a band was this much fun.”

“It's like Christians who want to be like Jesus. We're just trying to follow in someone's footsteps. Might as well be The Beatles.”