Quotes from Al Yankovic

There are probably a few library fines I haven't paid yet, but I'm a pretty clean-cut guy overall.

It's hard to really articulate what the parameters are that make one song parody-able and another song not, but if I can come up with a good enough idea for it, I go for it, and if not, then I have to move on.

There are a lot of songs that would ostensibly be a good candidate for parody, yet I can't think of a clever enough idea.

My hobbies just sort of gradually became my vocation.

I like the guitar-driven music of Nirvana at its peak. At that point, I thought there was a lot of really exciting music coming out.

Probably 90 percent of my albums have polka medleys.

What kind of morons do you have working at newspapers in Austin that would base an entire review of an artist's performance on whether or not they had a good seat?

I was a huge fan of 'Mad' magazine when I was 11, 12, 13 years old. I'd scour used bookstores trying to find back issues, and I'd wait at the newsstand for a new issue to come out. My life revolved around it.

When I go to my live shows it's often a multigenerational audience, a family bonding experience.

If you want to avoid heated arguments, never discuss religion, politics, or whether the toilet paper roll should go over or under.

72 Days is now an official unit of time known as a Kardash.

If money can't buy happiness, then I guess I'll have to rent it.

So that's why one of my rules of parody writing is that it's gotta be funny regardless of whether you know the source material. It has to work on its own merit.

People never ask people doing serious music, 'Do you ever think about doing funny music?'

When I go to my live shows it's often a multigenerational audience, a family bonding experience.

In the '80s, I was putting out an album virtually every year, I think mostly based on fear - that if I didn't, people would soon forget about me.

It's hard to force creativity and humor.

I have a long-standing history of respecting artists' wishes.

As my father used to tell me, the only true sign of success in life is being able to do for a living that which makes you happy.

One of my pet peeves is that sometimes the talents of my band get overlooked because, and it was the same problem that Frank Zappa had, with a lot of groups that use humor, people don't realize there's a lot of craft behind the comedy.

I did have a child, and I was reading a lot of picture books to her, but at the same time writing a children's book was something that I'd been wanting to do for many years, pretty much since the start of my career.

How can you get bored if the audience is cheering and laughing at something you're doing?

You still have Top 40 radio now, but it's 40 different stations. There aren't many hits that everybody knows, and there aren't many real superstars.

There aren't that many superstars around anymore.