I made records for 20 years, I lived off it. But people would say I made so many mistakes, I did so many things you're not supposed to do. I had a band name nobody could say. I didn't play live. I never practiced, I never got better at my instrument.

David Berman

I read Henry Miller's 'Nexus,' 'Sexus' and 'Plexus' the summer after I graduated from college. It cemented my decision to spurn any and all careers.

David Berman

Men Car Us

Like they used to say about Joe Montana, he threw soft because he couldn't throw hard. He was successful because he didn't try to do what he couldn't. I couldn't rock out harder than everybody, or overpower people with mastery like Jack White of the White Stripes, so why try? That's why I've always worked harder on words.

David Berman

Work Success Power

I am not only neither Christian nor Jewish, but said to be in between, and I feel the same way about being from the South and being from the North. I write with my left hand but I throw a ball with my right hand.

David Berman

Write Wit Wish

I have bad vision, but it's not distorted. It's low power!

David Berman

Power Vision Ted

I want so many artists that I care about to go away and grow up, and have been amazed at how hard that is for some people to do.

David Berman

Car Art Way

I have always had a blank spot where my regret is supposed to be.

David Berman

Where Ways Way

I was much further along as a poet than as a songwriter, but the songs were getting more attention. They were doing what art is supposed to do, mixing it up with people.

David Berman

Art Writer Write

The world of commerce is a kind of a purgatory itself.

David Berman

World Tory T

I'm interested in direct communication about domestic life.

David Berman

Life Communication UN

Fan reaction is so out-sized and hyperbolic in rock music compared to other arts.

David Berman

Music Art Us

It must be very strange to live in the world of Willie Nelson or Bruce Springsteen or Pearl Jam. I don't know what kind of handle they have on their own loss of talent.

David Berman

Teen World Willie Nelson

I try every day and every night to find a movie or a TV show that I can watch, but I just can't make it past ten minutes of anything.

David Berman

Watch Very Us

I trust myself.

David Berman

Trust Us T

I always had a background belief in God. In other words, instinctually I've never doubted that we are not alone.

David Berman

God Alone Words

People younger than me trust me. People my age do not. They think I'm up to something. And I've often felt this.

David Berman

Trust Age Younger

It's a Gen X thing to be okay with going unnoticed or unrated or untouched. To be free from strangers' expectations, or anger. People got angry at me when I stopped making music because it seemed I was devaluing everything.

David Berman

Music Anger Wit

Ever since I was a little kid, I've always felt un-trusted.

David Berman

Trust Ways Way

I'm not the type to demand affirmation or to worry that I'll be forgotten. I'm more the type to dare the world to forget me.

David Berman

Worry World Type

A lot of the Jews I met in Israel, almost all of them are secular. They get turned off by their religion, in the same way that Americans get turned off Christianity by people like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robinson.

David Berman

Religion Well Way

Obviously there was the idea that we could sell more records if we played live, but I guess I didn't care enough to sell more records to do that.

David Berman

Car Us T

Allen Ginsburg was wrong about a lot of things, but especially when he said, 'First thought, best thought.'

David Berman

Everything I write goes through a lot of drafts. A hundred rewrites is not unusual for me to go through - the last fifty maybe just going back and forth on a single line or word selection.

David Berman

I made records for 20 years, I lived off it. But people would say I made so many mistakes, I did so many things you're not supposed to do. I had a band name nobody could say. I didn't play live. I never practiced, I never got better at my instrument.

David Berman

I've had to stop going to the nearest grocery store that seems to play Shania Twain's 'Forever and For Always' whenever I'm there. It's hard to shop for frozen entrees through cold-air blasted tears. Feels good on a flushed face though.

David Berman

I used to consider myself weak.

David Berman

I've never been from a certain group. I've always reserved a space for myself where I'm unattached to any group, but the part of Judaism that I really take away, that means something to me, is the part about community.

David Berman

I mean, I wasn't fortunate enough to have ever experienced starting out with a band and sticking with them, so that would be interesting to me. People whose bands start out like that, when they break up it's always terrible.

David Berman

Mostly i write on an unplugged Mustang or a Baby Taylor.

David Berman

My great grandfather was the last practicing Jew in my family. He died in 1982.

David Berman

I have this Martin electric/acoustic that's made of black formica. Really cool.

David Berman

In 2004, I don't think any Silver Jews fan was probably expecting another record.

David Berman

For the first 12 years of recording I would finish the album, then on the day it came out I'd never hear the songs again.

David Berman

Some nights I'm funny with the between-song commentary, some nights I'm not. I have no control over this. I pace the stage a lot and struggle with the mic stand in a ridiculous way.

David Berman

I'm not convinced I have fans.

David Berman

I guess on all Silver Jews records, it's extremely male-centric.

David Berman

I'm not a good singer.

David Berman

Silver Jews was always a coolection of old friends. Uncoolection.

David Berman

In a lot of ways, I wouldn't be an artist in another time. I need to exist in a time where high and low art mix easily.

David Berman

For a long time, I've struggled very, very much with what people call treatment-resistant depression.

David Berman

My faith was undermined by the same sort of things that make people skeptics of religion in general. Part of it was, there was no real place for me in Judaism. Maybe if there was I would've hung in there, but I was attracted to the social-justice aspects of Judaism, and I was attracted to the prophets.

David Berman

Natalie Maines has a voice for the centuries.

David Berman

I imagine that I'm less famous than the 15th ranked bowler in the world.

David Berman

My father is a despicable man.

David Berman

I always loved bands with mystique.

David Berman

I grew up the son of a businessman. And I didn't get into music to be a businessman.

David Berman

If critics were harder on the musicians that they love, there would be better songs. But as they grow older and they lose their talent, critics refuse to let them know that and protect them, and they get to the point where they put out music that just isn't up to the levels where they've already been.

David Berman

I heard Springsteen was an unhappy person. I don't know, I haven't read his biography. But a lot of people in my field should be a lot more unhappy than they are.

David Berman

I can't imagine putting my name on a t-shirt. For someone to wear my name? Me? It's ridiculous.

David Berman

I don't have time for language poetry anymore. I don't want to throw people off anymore.

David Berman

Yeah, once the song is written, it just complexifies the profile of it to have the music and the words at odds. It comes naturally to me. A lot of my music is like that.

David Berman