Mike Shinoda Quotations

I would have never done this record if I didn't have the blessing of the rest of the guys, ... We're not, like, on hiatus. We're working. We're very serious about our records, and I know the guys are at home right now writing. Hopefully we are looking at next year for a record.

When I was in high school, if my favorite band got too popular, I'd watch carefully.

I liked the piano. I always liked playing. I just hated homework.

I find that the things that really, you know, get us fired up, tend to be things that, for example, things that you talk about tonight, what we see in the news.

I remember being a little kid sitting in the living room with my brother and some friends from around the neighborhood, and I would sit at the piano and as they were running around the room doing different things and being silly, acting out, I would actually play the score for it - the music that went along with it.

I spent ten years playing classical piano, and that was what led to keyboards and eventually to production and to Linkin Park.

I've been really excited about some new cutting edge electronic music and technology.

I was a producer and rapper before Linkin Park. Once the band took off, it was the center of my focus. A couple of years ago, I started missing doing straight-up hip hop, and that's when Fort Minor began.

For me, I feel like, if the right movie comes along, I'd do it again. It's not about the budget. It's about whether it's something that I'm excited to work on.

If I weren't making music, I'd be the kid who writes into the magazines and says, "why don't you guys ever cover anything that's different? Hip hop is so much of the same thing over and over again." I love hip hop, so I wanted to make an album from that standpoint, 'cause that's who I am.