Quotes from Alison Mosshart

I just sang at first - I didn't ever play guitar before The Kills.

Record covers still inspire me in terms of clothes, some bands just look sharp. But I still wear stuff I owned when I was 16.

If I'm at a party, and there are lots of people running around, you'll most likely find me on the floor, painting... I want to be at the party, but I want to do something. I'm just not very idle at all.

I'm inspired by being in a different town every day - all the people I meet, all the things I see. There's no way of compartmentalizing everything in my head; whatever I'm taking in is coming out in some way. I think I love painting so much because, for me, it's so fast. There's not too much thought in these paintings.

Painting is almost like a sport. It's like this action thing. When I do it, I'm really not thinking. The paintings are like a diary that I might not want to read again.

I don't own a pair of sweatpants.

Over the years, my art box has gotten bigger and bigger.

All of my art is suitcase-sized. I always paint in mediums that dry pretty quickly because I've got to throw them in my suitcase and go. And I have so much because of that, because it's what I've always done to pass the time, and I like it.

I hate sunshine so much. I can only cope with it when it's bitterly, bitterly cold.

It's fun and super exciting to see how other people work, how other people write music, and how other people put things together. To me, it's an endless learning process, and I love doing it because everybody works so completely differently.

The crazy colors tend to wash out so quick. Basically, it ensures that you never wash your hair, so it starts to do some cool stuff.

I think we choose gear by the way that it looks. We choose lots of things by the way that it looks. I don't like bands that look like roadies. I don't like when I can't tell who's the guitar tech and who's the guitar player.

Performing is one thing, and day-to-day stuff - like the way you talk to people - is totally different. If I acted like I did onstage in normal life, everyone would probably hate me.

Lollapalooza, that was one of my worst shows. We just played at, like, 3 in the afternoon; it was like the hottest, most miserable thing. My shoes were melting. I just thought I was going to die. It was the most horrible experience. I lasted, what, four songs? In front of quite a lot of people. That was one of my least favorites.

In the studio, you can always stop, rewind and do it again, but on stage, you can never do that - it's a different energy. It separates good bands from bad bands, being able to play, perform and really capture an audience. I think that's the hardest part.

Everybody wants you to do this thing that you've always been doing forever. That's what they want: they want Martin Scorsese to make the same film two hundred times rather than trying to be something different.

People can be quite cynical. 'The Kills are too cool.' There's been an on-and-off relationship with the music press that loves us and then hates us then loves us again. I don't think any kind of press is reliable.

You have a physical human reaction to something that another human being made. When you remove the human from it, and you chop it up, make it all perfect, you have a different reaction. Something is not there. You can feel it when it's there.

I love being on stage more than anything, and I think that's what comes across. I think the most honest representation of any music is to play it right there in front of people. It's a moment - it's all one of a kind, every little part of it. There's no repeat.

You want to put out a record that you feel is exactly as you want it. Nobody wants to tour for two years on a record they don't like.

Touring can be repetitive at times.

When you're recording in the midst of touring, you get a different sense about you. Things are more rocking, darker, heavier and louder. You're thinking about the audience that you're seeing every night.

I love touring. I can't wait. Everything is just normal when you're finally on tour. I think, for me, it's my happiest thing; I love moving around, and I have friends and family all over the place. It's kind of my time. It's almost like home. It's when I get to see everybody.

I can't talk on the radio at all. When the red light comes on, my hands go up in the air: I think they're trying to get to my face, to shut me up. I don't talk on stage for the same reason.