Somebody said to me, "But the Beatles were anti-materialistic." That's a huge myth. John and I literally used to sit down and say, "Now, let's write a swimming pool."
Paul McCartneyAll a musician can do is to get closer to the sources of nature, and so feel that he is in communion with the natural laws.
John ColtraneA long apprenticeship is the most logical way to success. The only alternative is overnight stardom, but I can't give you a formula for that.
Chet AtkinsMusic is spiritual. The music business is not.
Van MorrisonMaking music should not be left to the professionals.
Michelle ShockedIf being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or music, then in that respect you can call me that. I believe in what I do, and I'll say it.
John LennonAll my concerts had no sounds in them; they were completely silent. People had to make up their own music in their minds!
Yoko OnoThey always say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.
Andy WarholWithout Elvis, none of us could have made it.
Buddy HollyA legend is an old man with a cane known for what he used to do. I'm still doing it.
Miles DavisIf someone says can't, that shows you what to do.
John CageA synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the word you first thought of.
Burt BacharachYou've got a song you're singing from your gut, you want that audience to feel it in their gut. And you've got to make them think that you're one of them sitting out there with them too. They've got to be able to relate to what you're doing.
Johnny CashSinging is a trick to get people to listen to music for longer than they would ordinarily.
David ByrneHalf the battle is selling music, not singing it. It's the image, not what you sing.
Rod StewartThere are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we'd all love one another.
Frank ZappaThat's why I hate to take credit for the songs I've written. I feel that somewhere, someplace, it's been done and I'm just a courier bringing it out into the world.
Michael JacksonIt seems to me that those songs that have been any good, I have nothing much to do with the writing of them. The words have just crawled down my sleeve and come out on the page.
Joan BaezThis land is your land & this land is my land - sure. But the world is run by those that never listen to music anyway.
Bob DylanIn writing songs I've learned as much from Cezanne as I have from Woody Guthrie.
Bob DylanIf you want to tell the untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got to find a language - which goes for film as well as prose, for documentary as well as autobiography. Use the wrong language, and you're dumb and blind.
Salman RushdieI go through a thousand songs to find ten for a new record.
Conway TwittyA lot of songs you write are just for exercise -- just pencil sharpeners.
Harlan HowardI'm as mystified now as when I started. I'm no closer to understanding the difference between the ingredients of a really great song and a mediocre one.
David GrayThe only difference between a demo and a master is the amount of money you pay the musicians.
Don CookVideos destroyed the vitality of rock 'n' roll. Before that, music said, "Listen to me." Now it says, "Look at me."
Billy JoelAh Mozart! He was happily married - but his wife wasn't.
Victor BorgeI think one of the reasons I'm popular again is because I'm wearing a tie. You have to be different.
Tony BennettI can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.
John CageToo many pieces of music finish too long after the end.
Igor StravinskyWhen the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
Hunter S. ThompsonEducation is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.
B. F. SkinnerThe first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it.
Abbie HoffmanIt took great courage to ask a beautiful young woman to marry me. Believe me, it is easier to play the whole of Petrushka on the piano.
Artur RubinsteinBlues is easy to play, but hard to feel.
Jimi HendrixAudiences like their blues singers to be miserable.
Janis JoplinJazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.
Ornette ColemanJazz is a very democratic musical form. It comes out of a communal experience. We take our respective instruments and collectively create a thing of beauty.
Max RoachIf it wasn't for pimps, prostitutes, hustlers, gangsters, and gamblers, there wouldn't be no jazz! They supported the club owners who bought the music. It wasn't the middle-class people who said, "Let's go hear Charlie Parker tonight."
Betty CarterI realized by using the high notes of the chords as a melodic line, and by the right harmonic progression, I could play what I heard inside me. That's when I was born.
Charlie ParkerThere are two golden rules for an orchestra: start together and finish together. The public doesn't give a damn what goes on in between.
Sir Thomas BeechamFame is proof that the people are gullible.
Ralph Waldo EmersonDon't confuse fame with success. Madonna is one. Helen Keller is the other.
Erma BombeckAll the fame you should look for in life is to have lived it quietly.
Michel Eyquem de MontaigneAfter about three lessons, my voice teacher said, "Don't take voice lessons. Do it your way. You're a song stylist. Always do it your way."
Johnny CashYou've got to find some way of saying it without saying it.
Duke EllingtonYou can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, but who shall command the skylark not to sing?
Kahlil GibranInformation is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love. Love is not music. Music is the best.
Frank ZappaThe only motivation I need to write a musical is a phone call from the producer.
Cole PorterI don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to.
Elvis PresleyMusic is the art of thinking with sounds.
Jules CombarieuMost rock journalism is people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, for people who can't read.
Frank ZappaI am glad so many women singers are being heard in music today. It is healthy for music because it means a lot of men are listening!
Judy CollinsA bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.
Maya AngelouFuck the fiddley bits.
Joe Strummer