Happiness and the Fish

Raine Maida, Edmonton Sun, 20 Sep. 1999:
Talking is just masturbating without the mess. That, to me, just sums up a lot. Especially in the music business, so many people just talk to hear themselves talk and build themselves up to fulfil their own egos. It's such bulls--- and if people would just get over that character trait, they would would find themselves so much happier, because you're not so consumed with yourself.

If you have something to say, make sure that there's some passion behind it. Don't just talk for the sake of talking. That's just boring and redundant. And it's a waste a time.

Raine Maida, Chart, Oct. 1999:
The lyric [talking is just masturbating without the mess], it's just an observation. A lot of people talk just for the sake of wanting to be heard. It makes them feel good talking. So, to me that's no different than masturbating really. You're just pleasuring yourself and in conversation, that's such complete bullshit, when you're trying to connect with somebody and have something of meaning. It's so superficial to do stuff like that. Like 80 per cent of the time, that's what's going on when you're talking to people, you know. When someone asks, "How are you?" They really don't give a shit usually, unfortunately. And beyond the depth of that, my whole thing is that the relationships I want to have and the people I want to know and love, you want to feel that same thing coming back. If you have that kind of relationship where it doesn't feel like someone's masturbating when they're talking to you, then you're lucky and you've got to kind of hold on to that. But most everyone else, that's where the whole mortality thing and the whole record's based upon death, it's like being dead when you're talking to people like that. It's like an energy sucker. It's unfortunate.