Nick Cave Quotes

I want to write songs that are so sad, the kind of sad where you take someone's little finger and break it in three places.

Love is a state that I would like to exist in continuously.

An artist's duty is rather to stay open-minded and in a state where he can receive information and inspiration. You always have to be ready for that little artistic Epiphany.

I can control the weather with my moods. I just can’t control my moods.

Kylie Minogue is the greatest thing that has happened to Australian music.

It's a wonderful life if you can find it.

He who seeks, finds, and who knocks, will be let in.

All of our days are numbered. We cannot afford to be idle. To act on a bad idea is better than to not act at all, because the worth of an idea never becomes apparent until you do it.

But if you're gonna dine with them cannibals Sooner or later, darling, you're gonna get eaten . . .

The artistic process seems to be mythologized quite a lot into something far greater than it actually is. It is just hard labor.

Who knows their own story? It certainly makes no sense when you’re in the middle of it

People think I'm a miserable sod but it's only because I get asked such bloody miserable questions.

'Inspiration' is a word used by people who aren't really doing anything.

My music has to do with beauty, and it's intended to, if not lift the spirits, then be a kind of a balm to the spirits.

I am not interested in anything that doesn't have a genuine heart to it. You've got to have soul in the hole. If that isn't there, I don't see the point.

Most people wait for the muse to turn up. That's terribly unreliable. I have to sit down and pursue the muse by attempting to work.

I look at you and you look at me and deep in our hearts know it That you weren't much of a muse, but then I weren't much of a poet

I'm very happy to hear that my work inspires writers and painters. It's the most beautiful compliment, the greatest reward. Art should always be an exchange.

I've never been interested in being relevant.

My biggest fear is losing memory because memory is what we are. Your very soul and your very reason to be alive is tied up in memory.

In the hysterical technocracy of modern music, sorrow is sent to the back of the class where it sits, pissing its pants in mortal terror.

I've spent my life butting my head against other people's lack of imagination.

I think it's an essential fact for any performer or artist to fail as poignantly as they can succeed.

I'm a believer. I don't go to church. I don't belong to any particular religion, but I do believe in God. I couldn't write what I write about and be creative without a certain form of belief.

I love being manipulated by what I see. I love weepies and romantic comedies where you're reaching for the Kleenex at the right moment.

You searched through all my poets, From Sappho through to Auden, I saw the book fall from your hands, As you slowly died of boredom.

You write a scene, and it works or it doesn't. It's immediate.

Said 2,000 years of Christian history, baby And you ain't learned to love me yet?

I've always done a lot of research and stuff around the songs that I write so there are pages and pages of writing and you can kind of see these songs emerging.

The older I get, the more I feel those kinds of ghosts - especially the women in my life - moving out of the shadows a bit more and becoming more present in my life.

A gentleman never talks about his tailor.

I am the captain of my pain.

It's very important that the music has a sense of adventure to it, and that it's done by the seat of your pants. There's a kind of nervy element about it.

I'm a big fan of teatowels and am always on the lookout for a good one.

The songs that I like are the ones that you can't visualize, that are just cries from the heart - those very straight, direct songs that make rock & roll music so wonderful.

Most of the time, feelings just seem to get in the way. They're a luxury for the idle, a bourgeois concept. Feelings are overrated.

Accessible local libraries are vital to communities and to children.

Out of sorrow entire worlds have been built out of longing great wonders have been willed they're only little tears darling let them spill and lay your head upon my shoulder.

I'm not a misogynist, so you can dispense with that. I think I've done wonders for the feminist movement.

You can't trust an artist that just makes good records.

No wonder sorrow doesn’t smile much. No wonder sadness is so sad.

I write songs from the point of view I had at a time;I'm not tryingto write songs from a young person's point of view.That only ends in disaster.

I'm unable to really write the kind of song that doesn't have a visual element, which most songs don't.

And I kissed away a thousand tears My lady of the Various Sorrows Some begged, some borrowed, some stolen Some kept safe for tomorrow.

I think there is a certain perversity in my music in that I continue, you know, to eat at the same ball of vomit year after year.

I think there's a certain numbness in modern society, that accepts certain kinds of violence, but represses other kinds of violence.

I have to be able to pull you in. How can I diversify my audiences? What role do I have to play to be part of that shift? I have to take that seriously.

A rock musician's career is short-lived. To extend it, you need to do other things to keep yourself fresh.

I just want to leave this world with a massive catalog of songs.

I love performing. I can get to be that person I always wanted to be - godlike.