The big struggle now seems to be between creating what comes naturally and beautifully, that which carries feeling and emotion, and pushing beyind my inner ear towards something original. If left to my natural self, I write the most unoriginal garbage ever heard. It’s good, but it’s totally unoriginal. If I force myself to write something “new”, it doesn’t come from my heart. I pull it out of the sky, randomly. Everything is by chance. It sounds original, but bad. So some of my work is original, and some of my work is good, but unfortunately never at the same time.
— Rivers Cuomo, November 6th, 1994.