Al Yankovic

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.

It's hard to force creativity and humor.

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.

I have a long-standing history of respecting artists' wishes.

People never ask people doing serious music, 'Do you ever think about doing funny music?'

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.

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.

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