Weeknd: "It’s like science at this point. I love when [fans] sing subconsciously, where it's like, 'I know that melody.'"

Weeknd: "Maybe there is a deeper issue with that, but I feel like with me it’s never been about the artist and the image of the artist. With House of Balloons, nobody knew what I looked like. And I felt like it was the most unbiased reaction you can get to the music, because you couldn’t put a face to it."

Weeknd: "I wanted to be very calculated about how I wanted people to see me or hear my music."

Weeknd: "I didn’t know what [musicians] were saying when I was younger: Just because you speak it doesn’t mean you really understand what they’re saying."

Weeknd: "I feel like the way I was raised was to be able to see through all the titles in this world - from religion to race."

Weeknd: "'House of Balloons' was special because I had no deadlines, and nobody knew me, so there were no expectations. Spent a year making it perfect. Every song had at least, like, 7 different versions to them before picking the right one."

Weeknd: "I want to be remembered as iconic and different."

Weeknd: “I don’t like to leave my house too much. It’s a gift and a curse but it helps me give undivided attention to my work. I enjoy being a workaholic, I think, or I’m just addicted to it. Even when I’m not working I’m always somehow still working. It distracts from the loneliness, I guess.”

Weeknd: "Once you learn to hit, teach yourself to never miss again."

Weeknd: "I read every single review. I read every comment. Everything. And I like reviews, man. I like critics. Even the biased ones that are against me, I like reading it. I think it’s interesting. I think it’s humbling, which is always great. I can now understand when you’re reading stuff. Like I can see through the lines now. Between the lines."

Weeknd: "When I write, I write about my surroundings. Sometimes it's light, and sometimes it gets very dark."'

Weeknd: "When I was making the early stuff, I never expected it to be so big. I was in my own kind of bubble. I never wanted to tour; I just wanted to create music and make a diary I could put out into the world. And sometimes, I became the characters."

Weeknd: “I went from starin’ at the same four walls for 21 years. To seein’ the whole world in just twelve months.”

Weeknd: "I try not to do too much. I just try not to bring attention to myself. And I just love being in normal situations, man. It’s such a great feeling. To be able to just like go on a walk and not being in a fucking SUV."

Weeknd: "Music is like film to me. When Tarantino makes a movie he gets people s*itting on him 24/7, but it’s his art, and he stands by it. And at the end of the day, my listeners love it, I love it, I hope you love it."

Weeknd: "It's almost schizophrenic who I portray in my music."

Weeknd: "And me not fully transitioning into full-on pop star yet, I was kind of in a middle ground. And I feel like Kiss Land was that. It was a very honest album. It was a lot of me being stubborn, of not letting a lot of input in."

Weeknd: "I think Abel would love to depart and divide himself from The Weeknd."

Weeknd: "You know me, but you don't know me. I give you what I want to give you. I relate to villains like that - but I'm not out to destroy the world."

Weeknd: "I wish I could make music about politics. I feel like it's such an art and a talent that I admire tremendously, but when I step into the studio, I step out of the real world, and it's therapeutic."

Weeknd: "I think that's why my career is going to be so long: Because I haven't given people everything."

Weeknd: "Everyone’s like, “No, just do better next time.” I will do better, but not for you. I’m going to do better for me."

Weeknd: "I believe that when anybody is sad, they make better music. They make more emotional music, more honest music. Cathartic, therapeutic music. And I’ve definitely been a victim of wanting to be sad for that, because I’m very aware. I definitely put myself in situations where it’s psychologically self-harming. Because making great music is a drug."

Weeknd: "I've grown accustomed to hotels and drastic climate change."

[On observing others reactions to his music when he was anonymous]

Weeknd: "I started listening, seeing what people thought of it. That’s what I mean by the unbiased reaction."

Weeknd: "The lines were blurry at the beginning. And as my career developed—as I developed as a man—it’s become very clear that Abel is someone I go home to every night. And The Weeknd is someone I go to work as."

Weeknd: "I'm trying to get to Mars before everyone else."

Weeknd: "I am not dark. My art is dark, and I’ve gone through dark times. I’ve used those dark times as inspiration for my art. But I feel like because I’m not dark, I was able to channel it and put it into my music and into my art."

Weeknd: "The mind of a 19-year-old is very different from the mind of a 26-year-old. You grow. You get into better relationships. You experience more, meet more people, better people. But when you're in a dark hole at an earlier point in your life - you write about the mindset you're in at that moment."

Weeknd: "I always hated how I looked on camera. I never put a face to my music, which actually made the music that much more mysterious."

Weeknd: "People always say when they meet me that I'm not what they expect. I assume they think I'm this super dark and depressing guy, but I like to channel all of those emotions into my work."

Weeknd: "I feel like I'm changing pop culture."

Weeknd: "I'm pretty laid-back in real life. I just love hanging with my friends and making jokes. The jokes don't stop - literally, all day."

Weeknd: "For my generation, the bomber jacket is like a replacement for the suit jacket. It's a piece that men wear every day, and it's something that I would wear for any occasion, whether it's on the street or going to an awards ceremony."

Weeknd: "Yeah, because Kiss Land symbolizes the tour life, but it’s a world that I created in my head. Just like House of Balloons symbolizes Toronto and my experiences there, but it’s a world that I created. When I think about Kiss Land, I think about a terrifying place. It’s a place I’ve never been to before that I’m very unfamiliar with."

Weeknd: "At one point, I didn't care. Now I want as many people to hear my music as possible."

[On his album, After Hours]

Weeknd: “I feel confident with where I’m taking this [new] record. There’s also a very committed vision and character being portrayed and I get to explore a different side of me that my fans have never seen.”

Weeknd: "When people meet me, they say that I'm really kind - contrary to a lot of my music."

Weeknd: "'Kiss Land' wasn't about what people wanted to hear on the radio. It was the state of mind I was in - introverted, like David Cronenberg's 'Naked Lunch.' You didn't know if you were hearing a chorus or a verse. It was just my thoughts."

Weeknd: "We're all insecure, aren't we? I'm not walking around like I'm macho man or anything."

Weeknd: "I'm the most boring person to talk to."

Weeknd: “I was very camera shy. People like hot girls, so I put my music to hot girls and it just became a trend. The whole ‘enigmatic artist’ thing, I just ran with it. No one could find pictures of me.”

Weeknd: "I have a good team. It's good to have a good team."

Weeknd: "'Trilogy' was more of a claustrophobic body of work. Before it was released, I hadn't left my city for 21 years, and I had never been on a plane, not once. I spent my entire life on one setting; that's probably why pieces of the album feel like one long track, because that's what my life felt like. It felt like one long song."

Weeknd: "The last thing you want is to not be recognized for all of the hard work you put in."

[On Kanye West]

Weeknd: "Everyone’s a character on my album, and his production, voice, and input is a character, too. There’s so much detail in his sessions, and he definitely helped craft who I’ve been, subconsciously, for the past few years. To actually be with him and talk to him and work with him, it’s just like coming to life."

Weeknd: "Literally wrote 'Starboy' in 30 minutes."

Weeknd: "I used to get penalized for singing when I was younger, because I always wanted to sing. I didn’t know if it was good or bad. I just always wanted to sing. I would sing in class. I would sing at the dinner table. And I would get in trouble for it because it was inappropriate at the time."

Weeknd: "I put 'Real Life', 'Tell Your Friends', 'Losers', and 'Often' at the beginning of the album because I’m telling a coming of age story. It’s a reminder that I’m not gone."

Weeknd: "Image, lyrics, content, storytelling, cohesive body of work - that's Prince to me."

[On how he learned to write Pop songs]

Weeknd: "I didn’t have to learn. It’s always been in me. I just had to be confident enough to let it out. Working with producers like Max Martin and Kanye West, I’ve learned to do certain things technically and make a song in a different way than I usually would, but it’s always been in there."

[On revisiting his demons and showing vulnerability for his album, After Hours]

Weeknd: "I didn't want to, but sometimes you try to run away from who you are, and you always get back to that place. By the end of this album, you realize, 'I'm not that person.' I was, but I'm growing and wiser, and I'm gonna have children someday, and I'm going to tell them they don't have to be that person."

Weeknd: "In the beginning, I was very insecure. I hated how I looked in pictures."

[More on revisiting his demons and showing vulnerability for his album, After Hours]

Weeknd: "You could hear the vulnerability in the music before, but there was such a shield, such a f*ck you to the world, and now I'm very comfortable with letting the world know that I can be that way."

[On turning 30]

Weeknd: "And this is the beginning of not just a new chapter but my second decade [as a performer]. I feel like my career is just starting."

Weeknd: "I feel like my singing is not conventional. I mean, if you look at technique, I'm not a technical singer."

[On Lana Del Rey]

Weeknd: "I feel like we’ve always been talking to each other through our music. She is the girl in my music, and I am the guy in her music. It’s just this ghostly collaboration that feels the most natural on the whole album."

Weeknd: "All that money, the money is the motive."

[On similarities between his and Kanye's paths in music]

Weeknd: "He had to make the same decisions I did: College Dropout, Late Registration, and then the shift into Graduation, and another shift into 808s & Heartbreak, which got mixed reviews but is one of the most important bodies of work of my generation. Kanye needed to be on this album, because I feel like I’m going through what he’s been going through—reinventing himself and pushing the boundaries."

[2015 interview, referencing R. Kelly and his impact]

Weeknd: "R. Kelly is just a child of Michael and Prince; I want to be that of my generation. I mean, I hope I can be that."

[On Michael Jackson]

Weeknd: "When Michael died, it felt like part of my family died. I want [my fans] to know that my music is for them and if, god forbid, anything happened [to me], it would be like a piece of them is gone."

Weeknd: "The effect of music on fashion has been immense, especially hip-hop and urban music."

[On why he chose to pursue a more straightforward sound for his record]

Weeknd: "For a while, I didn't focus on the commercial success. I really was going at the punk aspect of everything, which worked, but I felt like it got redundant. I owe it to people—to my family, to myself—to make music that makes me feel good and also is a little easier to understand."

Weeknd: “I love villains—they’re the best characters in movies, right? The Joker is my favorite villain of all time: You don’t know his past, you just know what his plans are.”

Weeknd: "Prince was always just pushing the envelope. Michael was doing that too, but he wasn’t as experimental. Prince turned experimental music into pop music."