Quotes By Al Yankovic

At this point I've got a bit of a track record. So people realize that when 'Weird Al' wants to go parody, it's not meant to make them look bad... it's meant to be a tribute.

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.

It's hard to force creativity and humor.

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

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.

Somebody will come up to me after a show and have me sign their arm, and the next time I see them my autograph has been permanently inscribed on their arm.

I don't think there are any new media I'd like to cover.

I suppose I had my rock star fantasies while I was singing into my hairbrush in the bathroom mirror, but I never really consciously said, 'OK, this is what I'm going to do for a living and I'm going to be Weird Al.'

A lot of rap songs don't usually have a lot of melody per se.

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.

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

If I could find the right kind of property, get tied in with the right movie, I'd love to be involved, but I just find it hard to be motivated to do another screenplay right now.

There aren't that many superstars around anymore.

One of the hardest things I've had to deal with in my career is keeping my material topical even though I only release albums every three or four years.

I'm obviously not a rapper, and I don't have any claims to be one, really.

I know now that everything I write, I'm going to put out, and I'll have to live with it for the rest of my life.

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

Some people want to advertise their weirdness, and spread it out, that's not me.

I make charts of songs that are good candidates, good targets, so to speak. Then I try to come up with ideas for parodies. And 99% of those ideas are horrible.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Pop culture's gotten much more disposable.

I mean, I hate to gloat, but I'm extremely satisfied with my position in life and the way things have worked out for me.

My hobbies just sort of gradually became my vocation.

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.

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.

I can't get too offended when somebody parodies me.