Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.
C. S. LewisPunk is musical freedom. It’s saying, doing and playing what you want. In Webster’s terms, ‚nirvana‘ means freedom from pain, suffering and the external world, and that’s pretty close to my definition of Punk Rock.
Kurt CobainThere’s something about pulling out a real tape from a shelf and looking at it and knowing that ‚Everlong‘ is on it, or ‚Best of You‘ is on it, and it’s really special.
Dave GrohlI was ready to quit music. It felt to me like music equalled death.
Dave GrohlU2’s best work has always been when we didn’t know what we’re doing.
BonoAll my momma’s people were very musical. My grandpa, who was the Pentecostal minister, he was a great musician. He played the fiddle, he played the piano.
Dolly PartonEvery day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheFiction reveals truth that reality obscures.
Ralph Waldo EmersonI want to keep making records as long as I can, but I don’t know how long you can be taken seriously in rap.
EminemIn music the passions enjoy themselves.
Friedrich NietzscheWe based the look on rock ‚n roll right from the beginning.
Vivienne WestwoodI don’t sing because I’m happy; I’m happy because I sing.
William JamesWe have a Boesendorfer piano that I play every day. It keeps my brain and my fingers active.
Anthony HopkinsThe music we do is for people to enjoy, dance and sing to it. Dreamers – keep on dreaming and keep working hard to achieve your goals. There are many difficulties, but what matters is to stay focused and have perseverance.
Bad BunnyLife is a song to me.
Dolly PartonI always wanted to operate at the highest altitude, just in terms of hip-hop and the music.
Nipsey HussleWhen I won the first Grammy, there was no other feeling like that feeling. It just made me feel like I came so far, like that was just a dream a few years before that, and then it was happening right then.
RihannaYou just don’t wake up one day and decide that you need to write songs.
Bob DylanThe prospect of music being detachable from time and place meant that one could start to think of music as a part of one’s furniture.
Brian EnoThe darkness, the loop of negative thoughts on repeat, clamours and interferes with the music I hear in my head.
Lady GagaMusic is one of the most powerful things the world has to offer. No matter what race or religion or nationality or sexual orientation or gender that you are, it has the power to unite us.
Lady GagaLyrics are the only thing to do with music that haven’t been made easier technically.
Brian EnoI just make the pictures and where they fall is where they fall. If somebody likes them, that’s always nice. And if they don’t like them, then too bad.
Clint EastwoodHowever, there’s no theme or concept behind Heathen, just a number of songs but somehow there is a thread that runs through it that is quite as strong as any of my thematic type albums.
David BowieArt’s everything we hope life would be, a lot of times.
Frank OceanWhen I’m in the studio, I’m looking for creativity I haven’t matched yet, a feeling I haven’t felt. It’s a high.
Kendrick LamarPeople today are still living off the table scraps of the sixties. They are still being passed around – the music and the ideas.
Bob DylanI don’t know anything about music. In my line you don’t have to.
Elvis PresleyI believe in singing to such an extent that, if I were asked to redesign the British educational system, I would start by insisting that group singing becomes a central part of the daily routine. I believe it builds character and, more than anything else, encourages a taste for cooperation with others.
Brian EnoI make good music for long journeys.
The WeekndReading made Don Quixote a gentleman, but believing what he read made him mad.
George Bernard ShawThe first rap CD that I had, it was so different for me. The energy, the wordplay, all that caught my attention, and I liked it.
Bad BunnyI play the harmonica. The only way I can play is if I get my car going really fast, and stick it out the window.
Steven WrightI don’t think of Kurt as ‚Kurt Cobain from Nirvana‘. I think of him as ‚Kurt‘. It’s something that comes back all the time. Almost every day.
Dave GrohlI would love to continue in music, with writing… but I am not the kind of person who will hang around if I start to become irrelevant. If that happens, I will bow down gracefully, raise my kids, and have a garden. And I am going to let my hair go gray when I am older. I don’t need to be blonde when I’m 60!
Taylor SwiftWhen I do listen to music, I’m more prone to listen to the people I’ve always listened to: George Jones, Otis Redding, Alison Krauss and Emmylou Harris.
Dolly PartonA fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.
George Bernard ShawMy dad was into the 1950s doo-wop era. If you look at those groups, or at James Brown, Jackie Wilson and the Temptations in the 1960s, you’ll see you had to be sharp onstage.
Bruno MarsDropkick Murphys get me going, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana… plus, all the regular hip-hop stuff.
Kobe BryantI like the way the stories of my relationships sound to music more than the way they look in print, in gossip columns or in me talking about them in interviews. I think it’s a better way of telling the stories.
Taylor SwiftIt is all fiction, only autobiographical in the sense it is about a small town. None of the incidents in the book ever happened to me as a child. I didn’t have an eventful childhood.
Harper LeeBeing an artist doesn’t just mean you have a song. That doesn’t make you an artist. The word ‚artist‘ means so many different things, and I feel like to be a real one, you really have to do it all. The people that I think of as artists – Tyler the Creator, Childish Gambino, Kanye West – are doing the most.
Billie EilishAt the end of the day, who I really and truly am is a little girl who loved to play the piano.
Lady GagaI guess you could say I devoted myself so strongly to my music that for awhile I forgot about my family. But I only get one set of parents, and I think I forgot about that for a little while.
Lady GagaI started playing violin in the 5th grade. They had a program in school where you could get out of class to go play instruments. So I raised my hand, left out of class, me and a bunch of my homeboys, just to get out of class for that day. They asked what instrument you wanted to play and I picked the violin.
J. ColeWhen I’m 40 and nobody wants to see me in a sparkly dress anymore, I’ll be like: ‚Cool, I’ll just go in the studio and write songs for kids.‘
Taylor SwiftI don’t know if it’s changing already with ‚Joanne,‘ but my intention is to bring people together that don’t know each other and that would maybe feel awkward, but somehow be brought together by the music. That’s what I wanted to do. Because that is pure and authentic to my family history and what I stand for.
Lady GagaI need music. It’s like my heartbeat, so to speak. It keeps me going no matter what’s going on – bad games, press, whatever!
LeBron JamesI’ve been a huge fan of Chris Martin forever; it’d be awesome to work with him. He’s really kind, and he’s been really encouraging when we’ve met.
Taylor SwiftI feel connected to my generation through the music, but I also fear for us. We’re in a very self-destructive state where we’re addicted to outside opinions and we all feel like we have fans.
DrakeI can write a song in about an hour if it’s a simple country song.
Dolly PartonAnd later, if I ever felt that I was getting swept away by the craziness of being in a band, well, I’d go back to Virginia.
Dave GrohlThe bad gains respect through imitation, the good loses it especially in art.
Friedrich NietzscheIf music be the food of love, play on.
William ShakespeareThe album requires a certain focus of mine that I can’t really explain – let’s just say it’s all I can really do while I’m doing it.
EminemAs for my stuff, I’m just doing guest verses for other people’s records. I try to stay recording, because if I don’t, I get rusty.
EminemI don’t think anyone ever plans to change line-ups, but it’s something that comes with being in bands. I was in a band once and there were always problems – members come and go – and some of the world’s biggest bands have changed line-ups loads!
Bruno MarsActing is nothing more or less than playing. The idea is to humanize life.
George EliotFill the earth with your songs of gratitude.
Charles SpurgeonCause I’m a musician, I’m not really good at posing and being a model, like, modeling.
Amy Winehouse