The ideology of the Smashing Pumpkins was ultimately more valuable than the music of the Smashing Pumpkins. That's what critics can't put their finger on.

There are certain sounds that I've found work well in nearly any context. Their function is not so much musical as spatial: they define the edges of the territory of the music.

Music rhythms are mathematical patterns. When you hear a song and your body starts moving with it your body is doing math. The kids in their parents' garage practicing to be a band may not realize it but they're also practicing math.

Those who seek to satisfy the mind of man by hampering it with ceremonies and music and affecting charity and devotion have lost their original nature.

Musicians are there in front of you and the spectators sense their tension which is not the case when you're listening to a record. Your attention is more relaxed. The emotional aspect is more important in live music.

A painter paints his pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. We provide the music and you provide the silence.

I saw music as a way to entertain people and take them away from their daily lives and put smiles on their faces as opposed to what I see it being now which is a way for me to actually communicate and a way for me to tap into my subconscious.

Music Rock and Roll music especially is such a generational thing. Each generation must have their own music I had my own in my generation you have yours everyone I know has their own generation.

Rock n' Roll came from the slaves singing gospel in the fields. Their lives were hell and they used music to lift out of it to take them away. That's what rock n' roll should do - take you to a better place.

Those who have virtue always in their mouths and neglect it in practice are like a harp which emits a sound pleasing to others while itself is insensible of the music.