There's a bit of magic in everything, and some loss to even things out.
Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony.
You're going to reap just what you sow
Sound is more than just noise. Ordered sound is music. My life is music.
Things always seem to end before they start
I'm still not sure I didn't die
Music should come crashing out of your speakers and grab you, and the lyrics should challenge whatever preconceived notions that listener has.
These are really terribly rough times, and we really should try to be as nice to each other as possible.
Take a walk on the wild side.
When you think the night has seen your mind, That inside your twisted and unkind, Let me stand to show that you are blind. Please put down you hands cause I see you. I'll be you mirror.
I'll tell ya, I'm a genuinely nice guy. I really am. A real nice guy. But I think I'm temperamental.
I don't mind a repetitive chorus; I mind repetitive verse. I mean, it's the same amount of space. Why would you have only three diamonds if you can have six?
I don't think I'm in any position to call myself a martial artist. I'm a student of the martial arts.
I think life is far too short to concentrate on your past. I rather look into the future.
Let's do what you fear most That from which you recoil But which still makes your eyes moist
I wouldn't want to hear Beethoven without beautiful bass, the cellos, the tuba. It's very important. Hip-hop has thunderous bass. And so does Beethoven. If you don't have the bass, it's like being amputated. It's like you have no legs.
I tried to give up drugs by drinking.
I'm writing about real things. Real people. Real characters. You have to believe what I write about is true or you wouldn't pay any attention at all. Sometimes it's me, or a composite of me and other people. Sometimes it's not me at all.
I can't do anything I want to. I mean, I can't have my own TV show. I can't have my own movie. But within my little world, nobody tells me what to put on the albums.
Meditation doesn't have to be complicated. What I do is about as simple as you can get. You could just count the beads, one, two, three, with your eyes closed or open, whatever makes you happy.
I love women, I think they're great.
And no kinds of love are better than others
How can anybody learn anything from an artwork when the piece of art only reflects the vanity of the artist and not reality?
There's only X amount of time. You can do whatever you want with that time. It's your time.
It's just a temporary thing.
I always believed that I have something important to say and I said it.
I'm an artist and that means I can be as egotistical as I want to be.
Perfect Night is minimalistic and that's what makes it so forceful.
I think it's important that people don't feel alone.
You can't beat two guitars, bass, and drums.
Please don't set me free Death means a lot me
I think that everything happens for a reason, everything happens when it's going to happen.
There is only one good thing about small town You know that you want to get out
Those were different times.
When you think the night has seen your mind, that inside you're twisted and unkind, let me stand, to show that you are blind. Please put down you hands. Cause I see you; I'll be you mirror.
That's why I survived because I still believe I've got something to say.
Some even claim that I'm a terror, a dictator and they're right.
I'm a humanist.
I've become completely well adjusted to being a cult figure.
When I record an album I'm trying to get as close as possible to that perfect moment.
I can create a vibe without saying anything, just by being in the room.
She's my best friend, better than a dog or car.
I'm waiting'/for my man/ got twenty-six dollars in my hand/ he's never early/he's always late/ the first thing you learn/ is you always gotta' wait' -Waiting for the Man
Some people are like human tuinals
The myriad choices of his fate Set themselves out upon a plate For him to choose What had he to lose
I don't like the word rock opera, but I'm trying to write on that level that's reserved for plays still, or novels.
The music business doesn't interest me anymore.
Me, I've concentrated on music pretty much to the exclusion of other things.
I always thought martial arts was the most modern choreography we could have right now, and I always wanted to put it to music.
I wanted to be an actor. That was my real goal. But I wasn't any good at it, so I wrote my own material and acted through that. That's my idea of fun. I get to be all these things in the songs.
I have no control over the audience. I have no idea what they think. My heart's pure. I can't do anything. I really can't do anything. I don't know what goes on in the crowd.
For a while, I felt a little self-impelled to write Lou Reed Kind of songs. I should have understood that a Lou Reed song was anything I wanted to write about.
The first generation of CDs sounded terrible. Any chance to remaster would make the music sound better than what was already out there.
Music was what bothered me, what interested me.
I'm not joking around when I've said occasionally, trying to learn how to play a D chord properly has been a very big thing for me.
I don't like overdubs, never liked them.
I cleaned up my act because otherwise I would have kicked the bucket.
I'm too old to do things by half.
I'm in this business for too long to be halfhearted about anything.
I don't really think about what the subject of my next album will be. I just know that I'm going to make another album.
I can concentrate on my art.
You're a musician: You play. That's what you do.
I don't know what goes on in the crowd. I've had them show up and throw beer cans at me. I caused riots in most of the major cities.
In the late '70s I started to search for the perfect sound - whatever that might be, before that I was mainly interested in drugs, insanity and the rock'n'roll lifestyle.
People think that I work out but it's all t'ai chi.
Perfect Night has that magic and it has the raw energy that grabs you by the throat.
I don't know anyone actually who does care what a critic says.
But I'm also talented and I know when I created something great and Perfect Night is something great, no doubt, no but.
I am very emotionally affected by sound. Sounds are the inexplicable... There is a sound you hear in your head, it's your nerves, or your blood running.
The music is all. People should die for it. People are dying for everything else, so why not the music?
One of my rules is: Never listen to your old stuff.
I love Ornette Coleman. I love Don Cherry. I love the way those guys play.
It's depressing when you're still around and your albums are out of print.
My God is rock'n'roll.
I don't think anybody is anybody else's moral compass. Maybe listening to my music is not the best idea if you live a very constricted life. Or maybe it is.
I was a product of Andy Warhol's Factory. All I did was sit there and observe these incredibly talented and creative people who were continually making art, and it was impossible not to be affected by that.
I don't believe in dressing up reality. I don't believe in using makeup to make things look smoother.
Raymond Chandler managed to write about L.A. his whole career. Should I keep going writing about New York? Is that what I should be doing? Songwriting doesn't work that way.
You can't ask me to explain the lyrics because I won't do it.
When I was in college, I had a jazz radio show. I called it 'Excursion on a Wobbly Rail,' after a Cecil Taylor song. I used to run around the Village following Ornette Coleman wherever he played.
I've never been super confident about anything. The work is never as good as it could be.
If it has more than three chords, it's jazz.
You can't beat 2 guitars, bass, and drums.
I don't like nostalgia unless it's mine.
The most important part of my religion is to play guitar.
I think it's pretentious to create art just for the sake of stroking the artists ego.
One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz.
I think I just don't know.
It takes a busload of faith to get by.
Stephanie says that she wants to know Why she's given half her life, to people she hates now
