Music Quotes

Anybody under the age of forty knows hip-hop, gospel and R&B pretty well, and it's all a part of what we consider to be 'black music.' There is a natural synergy between the three.

There's so much music out there, and so many different styles that I've been influenced by, so each album reflects some of that knowledge or influence that I've had.

Hip-hop and R&B are especially fertile bases of collaboration. It always makes good records and good music.

I never went through a period where I didn't want to play music. I've always loved it and it's always been a huge part of my life.

Music business is hard. It's very difficult. And it's not for everyone. Even if you can sing or even if you can write a song, it takes a lot of determination, it takes some kind of thick skin.

My mother, I want her to like my music, but she's not exactly my target audience. So I care more about the fans in general, just making sure they enjoy what I do.

If art were to redeem man, it could do so only by saving him from the seriousness of life and restoring him to an unexpected boyishness.

The magic of the music seems to light the way.

I think it's the best thing I've ever done. I think it's realistic, and it's true to the me that has been developing over the years. I like first-person music.

I've withdrawn many times. Part of me is a monk, and part a performing flea! The fear in the music business is that you don't exist if you're not at Xenon with Andy Warhol.

We never write anything with themes. We just write the same rubbish all the time.

If I had the capabilities of being something other than I am, I would. It's no fun being an artist. You know what it's like, writing, it's torture.

At the (record company) meeting Paul just kept mithering on about what we were going to do, so in the end I just said, 'I think you're daft. I want a divorce.'

It ( In My Life ) was the first song that I wrote that was really, consciously about my life.... up until then, it had been all glib and throwaway.

The thing is, in America, it just seemed ridiculous - I mean, the idea of having a hit record over there, ... It was just something you could never do.

I only ever asked two people to work with me as a partner. One was Paul McCartney and the other Yoko Ono. Paul and me were the Beatles.

I don't miss it. I'm glad it happened, but I don't miss it.

I didn't leave the Beatles. The Beatles have left the Beatles, but no one wants to be the one to say the party's over.

I always like the studio best, once I got the hang of it and the control. I like it because it's complete control

The idea of beetles came into my head. I decided to spell it BEATles to make it look like beat music, just a joke.

My original idea for the cover was better - decapitate Paul - but he wouldn't go along with it.

We're more popular than Jesus Christ now.

I started being me about the songs, not writing objectively, but subjectively. I think it was Dylan who helped me realize that - not by any discussion or anything, but by hearing his work.

Barney Kessel is incredible. He's just amazing . . . . Nobody can play guitar like that

'Oh! Darling' was a great one of Paul's that he didn't sing too well. I always thought I could have done it better-it was more my style than his. He wrote it, so what the hell, he's going to sing it.

Music touching my soul, the spirit dance was unfolding.

Today's folk song is rock and roll. Although it happened to emanate from America, that's not really important in the end because we wrote our own music and that changed everything.

I love most melodic music - classical, reggae, big band, jazz, blues, country, pop, swing, folk.

Ornette Coleman is doing the only really new thing in jazz since the innovations in the mid-forties of Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and those of Thelonious Monk

But, you know, I'd be happy just making music.

I love pop music. It's not easy to write a good pop song. It may be easier to put out a fake jazz album, as Sting does from time to time.

Pop music I have always loved best.

I don't listen to music. I hate music.

I will always pay respect and homage to my early years, because that's what gave me the initial push to go on and do what it is I do. That's where I learned the love and respect for music.

Hopefully people can see my music is tethered to my brain.

I scientifically engineer my music to be as accessible as possible.

When I hear a great musician, I can feel his life inside the music.

Music that touches the transcendental aspect of a human being is reserved for a marginal audience

Interplay and interaction are the integral parts of music - they're as important as the notes.

When the music arrives in my mind, it gives me the direction and the form at the same time. It's integrated into the music itself.

I just want to keep exploring music and hopefully the orders will keep coming in and I'll be able to keep growing the interior and exterior sides of my life.

The Internet is the wrong direction for music.

Turning music into digital was just a con, a record-company con.

There's a lot of feeling that the school curriculum has been bare-bones, just drill and, again, no art, music, and so on and so forth.

I have always followed my instincts when it comes to music and life in general. They were telling me very loudly that it was time for John D., Hallmark and I to get back together.

A translation is no translation unless it will give you the music of a poem along with the words of it.

As children gath'ring pebbles on the shore. Or if I would delight my private hours With music or with poem, where so soon As in our native language can I find That solace?

I am a big fan of music in terms of storytelling device.

I don't want to date celebrities, I don't want to roll out of clubs absolutely steaming, make an idiot out of myself. I want to concentrate on my music career.

I went and studied music in Leeds. It really woke me up socially, to stop being so naïve and narrow-minded.