"“I did this song for an installation at a museum in Montreal, I covered it in one of the rooms in his memory and it was really an honour. It was all of his life and achievements as pieces of art in the museum, and they asked artists to showcase his art so that people could see those that he influenced. “I really love this song. I know that he speaks of the Second World War and I think that’s not often spoken about, considering how much pain it brought the world. Also, in art and music we don’t really paint or sing much about it but it’s important that people talk about it, because it’s something we carry on our shoulders and we did it to each other as a species. “I think about it a lot, but it’s good to distance ourselves from the memory too. I have a few songs about the matter, though some are more obvious than others.”"

"Nâ Hawa is an icon. She's still alive, she's younger than Nina Simone. For me, she's an example because she's one of those artists who started to push the female voice in Malian music. When I watched her videos when she was super famous in the past, I could never imagine that I could live like her. She's got the blues too. She never knew her mum, she passed away when she was giving birth to her. She always sang about tragic things but from her I realised that you can sing about your problems without complaining. She never complains, but she tells you her story. She was like a philosopher. She talks about normal life, how you can love each other, how you can live in peace, even if you've had bad experiences. She's a mum to me, in terms of writing. She always wrote about women, children, society, but with some beautiful melodies."

"It's very strong. This album makes me cry. It's the first album of Toumani's albums that I listened to and I started crying right away. I didn't know why I was crying. I was crying for happiness, I was crying for sadness. I couldn't explain it. I was crying deeply. That's why I always say that music can heal people, because it can take you somewhere you don't control. Many artists can take me to their world and through their world they can take me to my own world, to my past. For me, crying can heal many things. You can process many experiences that you didn't have time to digest. With time, you digest them and you learn how to heal yourself, to be at peace. Listening to good music, music that you like, you can really help yourself, to heal your soul, step by step, day by day. This record is really deep."

"I used to love the Sugarcubes, and then her debut album came out and I thought it was alright, I was going for different things and locked into Suede so wasn't really receptive to it. Then she gradually filtered through to me. Homogenic won out over Vespertine because of a few songs, like 'Jóga'. It's so beautiful, so atmospheric. There are few people that I actually listen to and am not a little disappointed by, or think I could do that. With her, it's, 'Woah.' She's one of those people who make music that I actually marvel at, I really do. She's incredibly talented. For me she's one of the few modern artists who are actually up there with the all-time greats. The music industry has to say that all these people are comparable to so and so, but she really is. Something like Biophilia suits her and suits her music. The music is intelligent for a start, but that really suits her sense of vision."