"Shut the f*** up! Could all the f***ing teenies step to the back and let the real fans come up front?!"
"With the last two albums, the lyrics are really straightforward and powerful, but with (Neon Ballroom) I wanted to do something totally different."
"The Neon Ballroom is pretty much the most special thing in my life. It's pretty much a musical diary of the hardest time in my life. When I was having a lot personal troubles and a lot of mental difficulties, the whole thing was documented into poems and then the poems were documented into songs. To say this album is just another album- although it might be to anyone else -- to me it's the most special thing that I could have ver released because it's just totally a musical diary."
"We never tried to make it that "Oh, we're so cool." We just told it how it was. Which I'm proud of now, because we're never going to get caught in some lie."
"When we first started we felt like we had no control. Everyone was telling us what to do and we didn't want to tell people off and say, "No we're not doing it." We did everything, even when we didn't want to do it. We were way too nice."
"I have never understood bands that just go and get the biggest producer in America. They totally just write these songs that are obviously just written for radio -- they start the song off with a chorus and just do verse, chorus, verse, chorus, etc. Although a lot of people like it, I certainly don�t understand what�s satisfying or gratifying about it."
"Our fans are growing with us and they might not go through the same problems, they can appreciate how hard it is."
"I don't like spending my whole life in the spotlight with everyone looking at you seeing you get old and fat and ugly and seeing how you lose the plot musically as well. I want to end before I get too sad."
"Some teachers don't really like us because we're in a rock band. Our music teacher especially really hates us. She thinks that classical music is the only music in the world, and she's always calling me and Ben to stay after class. One time she was yelling at us that we don't take her seriously, and we were just laughing. She started crying. I felt so bad, but we couldn't help it."
(About getting his eyebrow pierced)"I cried, fell down. I was on the ground then the people that pierced me started kicking me!!"
"The people that come to our gigs usually go pretty nuts. People just come there, they jump around, they hurt themselves, and they go home."
"Of course money is important. I�m not saying I don�t like money- everyone likes money!"