Paul Simon Quotes

I was eating in a Chinese restaurant downtown. There was a dish called Mother and Child Reunion. It's chicken and eggs. And I said, I gotta use that one.

The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenements halls and whispered in the sounds of silence.

Improvisation is too good to leave to chance.

If you can get humor and seriousness at the same time, you've created a special little thing, and that's what I'm looking for, because if you get pompous, you lose everything.

Sail on silver girl Sail on by Your time has come to shine All your dreams are on their way See how they shine Oh, if you need a friend I'm sailing right behind.

Believing I had supernatural powers, I slammed into a brick wall.

I don't feel any pressure from fans. But I'm always in some kind of state of emotional turmoil. I would not describe myself as happy-go-lucky. That's not to say that I'm not happy.

I've got nothing to do today but smile.

Music is forever; music should grow and mature with you, following you right on up until you die.

Someone told me it's all happening at the zoo.

It's actually very difficult to make something both simple and good.

All lies and jests, still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.

These are the days of miracle and wonder.

No one dare disturb the sound of silence...

The thought that life could be better is woven indelibly into our hearts and our brains.

And so you see I have come to doubt -All that I once held as true ~ I stand alone without beliefs -The only truth I know is you

...music is sometimes the only benign avenue of communication between antagonists.

Why am I so soft in the middle when the rest of my life is so hard?

Life I love you, all is groovy.

Artie is a singer, and I'm a writer and player and a singer. We didn't work together on a creative level and prepare the songs. I did that.

When I look back at all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all.

You know, life is what you make of it- so beautiful or so what.

You want to be a writer, don't know how or when? Find a quiet place, use a humble pen.

Faith is an island in the setting sun, But proof is the bottom line for everyone.

People ask how I feel about getting old. I tell them I have the same question. I'm learning as I go.

When I was 15, I made a solo record. It made Artie very unhappy. He looked upon it as something of a betrayal.

There's something about the sound of a train that's very romantic and nostalgic and hopeful.

The trick is, as I know it, is to care like hell and not give a damn at the same time.

I suppose an artist takes the elements of his life and rearranges them and then has them perceived by others as though they were the elements of their lives.

I feel I should try to reveal. When you hit it right, you produce an emotional response in the listener that can be cathartic. When you're wrong, you're soppy, sentimental.

One man's ceiling is another man's floor.

Much of songwriting is simply a mystery.

I don't believe what the papers are saying They're just out to capture my dime, Exaggerating this, exaggerating that.

Somewhere in a burst of glory / Sound becomes a song.

I don't like fashion. It's very heartless.

I met my old lover on the street last night, she seemed glad to see me.

My whole artistic life has always been about change, change, change, move on, move on. It's the only thing I find interesting.

I don't consider myself to be a major talent, so the only solace I can take is to hope I'm growing.

By the time I was 12 or 13, I felt that I was special, because I could play the guitar and write songs.

And a rock feels no pain; And an island never cries.

All God requires from us is to enjoy life and love. That's the whole point.

One of the things that upset me was some of the criticism leveled at Simon and Garfunkel. I always took exception to it, but actually I agree with a lot of it.

Artie travels all the time. The rehearsals were just miserable. Artie and I fought all the time. He didn't want to do the show with my band; he just wanted me on acoustic guitar.

I always get very calm with baseball.

My voice is my improvisational instrument, the melody instrument. The guitar is harmonic structure. I'm not a good enough guitarist to improvise on it.

I think Bridge Over Troubled Water was a very good song. Artie sang it beautifully. The Boxer was a really nice record. But I don't think I've written any great songs.

We had many more points of agreement than we had points of difference, but we did differ, and the bigger we got, the more insistent we got that each one of us should have his way.

When I first heard Elvis perform "Bridge Over Trouble Water" it was unbelivable,and I thought to myself, how the hell can I compete with that?

Then she kissed me and I realized she probably was right, there must be fifty ways to leave your lover.

Not every song I write is ecstasy. And it can happen only one time. After that, when you sing the same melody and words, it's pleasure, but you don't get wiped out.