The 64-year-old British-born songwriter and performer Robert Smith is known as the emotional frontman for the rock group, The Cure. Wailing away on songs that inspire as many thoughts as they do tears, Smith has become beloved for his elegiac works.
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But with so much fame and adulation to his and his band’s name, one might wonder what Smith has to say about the world outside of his music. What are his thoughts on life and love, his career, craft, and more?
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1. “I started out in the Cure reflecting things that I thought were important, and it’s reached a point where it takes over and becomes the thing that is important.”
2. “I’m in the strange position of the world drifting away from me, but you know what? I’m actually quite content with that. It doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I don’t feel like, ‘Oh God, I’m being left behind.’”
3. “A lot of journalists give me a hard time about how I look, but I’ve never met a journalist I’d rather look like.”
4. “I married somebody who likes the way I look. If I changed my hair every year, and I reinvented myself in time-honored pop fashion, I think understandably the person I’m married to would grow slightly sick of me.”
5. “I am very self-conscious a lot of the time.”
6. “The problem as you get older is, from my perspective, after a certain amount of songs, you tend to start writing something and then you stop and say, ‘Wait, I think I’ve written that before.’”
7. “Without faith that there’s a world beyond the one we live in, I don’t see how it’s possible to get rid of angst.”
8. “There were only two times in my life when I’ve actually felt down about things and gotten myself into a full mental mess. One of the times was in 1982. I had a horrible time for a few months and felt pretty desperate. Then again in 1984, for various reasons, not all of them within my control. Since then, I just wander in and out of black moods.”
9. “I’ve got a Facebook page, but I’ve never put anything on it. I’ve got a presence on all the social networks, in fact, but I’ve never once sent a message. I’m there because, otherwise, someone’s going to pretend to be me.”
10. “Every animal would rather die themselves than lose their offspring. But it’s just genes, isn’t it? All of our existence is spent worrying about the next generation, but we don’t actually seem to get anywhere.”
11. “Irony is the recourse of the weak-minded wimp, I think. I hate bands that deliver their songs with knowing smiles on their faces so that if those songs fall flat they can say, ‘Ah well, we never really meant it anyway.’ It’s so dishonest.”
12. “Hendrix was the first person I had come across who seemed completely free, and when you’re nine or 10, your life is entirely dominated by adults. So he represented this thing that I wanted to be. Hendrix was the first person who made me think it might be good to be a singer and a guitarist—before that I wanted to be a footballer.”
13. “It’s really nice meeting people after a concert. Still, it’s very weird to be at the center of a group of 30 people all listening to what you’re saying. When that group turns into 300 people, it goes on from weird. Some people revel in it, and I don’t.”
14. “If you acquiesce to one interview, there’s always another waiting in the wings. Also if you’re interviewed repeatedly, you just start repeating yourself. I don’t like to do that.”
15. “You don’t always have to sing dark things to be thoughtful.”
16. “I’ve never regretted not having children. My mindset in that regard has been constant. I objected to being born, and I refuse to impose life on someone else.”
17. “I lose myself in music because I can’t be bothered explaining what I feel to anyone else around me.”
18. “You put on eyeliner, and people start screaming at you. How strange, and how marvelous.”
19. “I’ve always spent more time with a smile on my face than not, but the thing is, I don’t write about it.”
20. “Apart from the fact that I’ve got a strange job, I do lead a fairly normal life. I do my own shopping. I don’t feel constrained by who I am because of what I do; I often feel disappointed by my lack of ability. I get frustrated at myself, but I think everyone does.”
(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
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