“The level on which Japan seems to have picked up on my music seems to ...” — James Blake Quote

“The level on which Japan seems to have picked up on my music seems to be on a more abstract level.”

“I think the music that you make, often it's even better if you identify with other people.”

“I never really approach collaborations as kind of normal things where they're arranged and they happen because you've arranged them. I've always been like this, I just have friends I hang out with, and while we're hanging out, if music happens then it happens.”

“I was worried in the '80s that the best abstract painting had become obsessed with materiality, and painterly gestures and materiality were up against the wall.”

“Actually, I love the Abstract Expressionists - or I like the ones I like, anyway.”

“With a live audience, it's very clear when you've pushed it too far to the edge - because you fall off that edge and hit bottom with a thud. Nothing abstract about that. You know you went too far when you hear that groan or worse - that silence instead of the big laugh you were expecting following your hilariously edgy joke.”