Rostam Batmanglij

“I tend to use different microphones, different mic techniques, and different recording mediums - like analogue tape - that evoke multiple eras of recorded music at the same time.”

“Well, the announcement to say that I was no longer a member of Vampire Weekend was something that was in the works for a long time. I knew that it was the right choice for me.”

“There are rules that are so blatantly broken on 'Contra,' like structures of harmony and texture.”

“Well, I think that I have a complicated relationship with whiteness because oftentimes, I pass as white, and I recognize that. I would be disingenuous to pretend that I don't pass as white.”

“I don't think teenagers in 2017 identify with heterosexuality, and that's a positive.”

“I think that for a lot of us gay people, we do feel that pop is our music. We identify with it and its iconography, and that's been a tradition.”

“Films should involve a director's idiosyncrasies as much as possible I think.”

“I feel like I've had this ability to infiltrate, as an outsider and an insider, different groups.”

“I like that I can write my name in Persian, and it's a small unit, like a graphical unit. I feel the same way about my name in English, it's a graphical unit.”

“I was fascinated by the word ‘Rudy,' which is connected to the Jamaican term 'rude boy,' which migrated from Jamaica to London. I was also fascinated by that name, because it exists in Persi...”

“The idea of the gay experience, it feels like a relic. I felt like in the '90s when we were watching the gay characters on ‘The Real World,' there was definitely a gay experience that was di...”