Donald Fagen quotes:

Randy Newman seemed like an even worse singer than me. I liked Ray Charles, Levi Stubbs, Jack Jones, Joe Tex, Wilson Pickett.

When you get a groove going, time flies.

I think of Steely Dan as being of its time, and it may be inseparable from its time.

We don't think of ourselves as being perfectionists, really. To us it's more about desperately trying to have it sound more or less OK.

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.

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.

I had trouble distinguishing art from life. I don't now, and I feel much better!

We're not getting any younger.

What a beautiful world this will be What a glorious time to be free

Popularity has everything to do with business

I have a critical nature, in the sense that when I look at something I often look for the flaws.

My style is a little quirky. I can't play as fast as most professional jazz players.

Anthemic rock music is inherently fascist - anything intended to move huge masses of people is politically offensive to me.

I'm starting to get older, and began to think about mortality a little more. My mother died in 2003 and that was a big shock. When your parents start to die off, that's going to be a revelation. So for me, this album - although it might sound quite cheery - is really talking about death.

What do you do with what you're given, and how do you transform it into something worthwhile?

I like it when songs develop in some way. Four minutes usually isn't enough time for something to develop musically.

As jazz fans, it was amusing for us to play jazz harmonies on these big, ugly electric guitars.

Melodies can be good depending on the context. You can have a simple melody, and if the harmony behind it is interesting, it can make a very simple melody really different. You can also have a complex melody. The more complex it is, the harder it is to sing, and then sometimes it can sound contrived. You could write a melody that would be fine on a saxophone but if you give it to a singer, it can sound raunchy.

It's great to know that our old stuff still sounds good to our fans, just as it's wonderful to think that we've turned a few people on to jazz over the years.

I don't think you can escape the environment we live in now.

I've never been comfortable as a lead performer, and I never wanted to be a singer, particularly.

People are usually afraid to say what's on their mind.