At first I was laboring under the impression that Chinese lyrics didn't rhyme. That turned out to be untrue - they don't rhyme in translation.

- Stephin Merritt

Well, there are certainly original things to say. But I'm not sure that a pop song is the appropriate format to say them in.

- Stephin Merritt

There's a whole kind of melancholy that you can only attain with reverb. That's an example of a technology introducing a whole new meaning.

- Stephin Merritt

If you start out with a song sounding like Britney Spears, and you end up with a song sounding like Pauline Oliveros, you'd better have pretty good l…

- Stephin Merritt

I write songs by sitting around in bars, so drinking songs are a little obvious. It's surprising that I don't write entirely drinking songs, since I …

- Stephin Merritt

There are only so many instruments you can layer on top of each other that aren't perfectly electronically programmed. "Long Vermont Roads" just cann…

- Stephin Merritt

The adventure is when people don't know what they're doing at all. Like, I think that the first pop band to use synthesizers as their main instrument…

- Stephin Merritt

You know, most love songs are not cheesy and corny. Most love songs are complaints, I think. Or about unrequited love, coming at it from some oblique…

- Stephin Merritt

Never try to do anything artistic when you're feeling something overwhelming. It's like driving a car: If you're experiencing road rage, pull over.

- Stephin Merritt