Tom Petty Quotes

I want to be successful. Not just money. Just making a successful record and a successful show... I could feel successful without selling a million records.

Take back your insurance, baby, nothing is guaranteed. Take back your acid rain, let your TV bleed.

I love history, doesn't matter what era, I'm fascinated.

I don't know, my music has always just come from where the wind blew me. Like where I'm at during a particular moment in time.

Lord, please watch over all these lost children born to chase the hurricane.

I had the radio on, I was driving. Trees flew by, me and Del were singing, Little Runaway, I was flying.

You spend your life dreaming, running 'round in a trance, You hang out forever and still miss the dance, And if you get lucky, you might find someone, To help you get over the pain that will come.

I'm tired of screwing up. I'm tired of being down. I'm tired of myself. I'm tired of bein' down.

He [George Harrison] told me he really, really admired John [Lennon]. He probably wanted John's acceptance pretty bad, you know?

Whatever you're looking for, don't come around here no more.

It just seems to useless to have to work so hard, and nothing ever really seem to come from it.

There was rock and roll across the dial, when I think of her it makes me smile.

You get in there, you get the job done and you get the hell out.

I love the music. I'm never, ever tired of playing it.

I've always had a great love for the blues.

I have never been comfortable being the front man.

Every verse a diamond, every chorus gold, the sound was my salvation. It was only everything, before money became king.

Yeah, the world would swing if I were king. Can I help it if I still dream time to time?

I'm actually better on the guitar than when I started, I think, because I've had so much time with it and I still practice and I love to do it and I love to sing.

I'm not trying to be cool. I have a problem with lights. I have one eye that's become super-sensitive to lighting, so I do wear sunglasses quite a bit.

I think it's important to always offer something new.

I think to be successful you have to work really hard but you also have to have a little bit of luck.

If you look around at America, that's one of its biggest problems is you have corporations that can never be pleased at a profit.

She grew up hard and she grew up fast, in the age of television.

Most magic is a trick, an illusion. But [when The Beatles played the Ed Sullivan Show], this was real. Man oh man, was it real.

I can't crawl any further. You never crawled for me.

My mama was a rocker way back in fifty-three, buys them old records that they sell on TV.

The truth is that if you play on TV there is always a sponsor. There is no way around it. I've already passed on so much money I don't worry about it anymore.

I think sometimes maybe you're going to connect with the audience more than others, but the journey is about getting all there is to get out of this group of people.

Gypsies at home watching Jerry Falwell on TV, might mean something to you, it ain't nothing to me.

Bring me a girl, they're always the best. You put 'em on stage, and you have 'em undress.

He don't wanna change, what don't need to change.

Way up in the nosebleeds we watched him on the screen, they'd hung between the billboards so cheaper seats could see.

There was no use pretending, no magic left to hear, all the music gave me was a craving for lite beer.

Well I won't back downNo I won't back downYou can stand me up at the gates of hellBut I won't back down

The great thing about the Wilburys was that none of us had to take the heat by ourselves. I was just a member of the band. Nobody felt like he was above anybody else. We had such a good time.

The first time I tried to write was when I was 14, after I got an electric guitar. I put a song together, and it wasn't that bad! The writing came natural to me.

'Free Fallin' is a very good song. Maybe it would be one of my favorites if it hadn't become this huge anthem. But I'm grateful that people like it.

What I've learned about marriage: You need to have each other's back you have to be a kind of team going through life.

I think television's become a downright dangerous thing. It has no moral barometer whatsoever. If you want to talk about something that is all about money, just watch the television.