Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
If you took love out of the equation, I wouldn't know what else to write about.
Sorrow's child grieves not what has passed, but all the past still yet to come.
Said 2,000 years of Christian history, baby And you ain't learned to love me yet?
I always thought my records were number one; it's just the charts didn't think so.
I have a particular dislike for children's films. I'm way past the novelty aspect.
There are times when I think I can sing it better, but usually I find that I can't.
Songwriting, I have to take myself away from everybody to do. It's an unsightly act.
To sustain hatred is a very difficult thing to do, year after year. It's exhausting.
Who knows their own story? It certainly makes no sense when you’re in the middle of it
I don't really do Japanese interviews. I don't think there's much call for me in Japan.
I don't write happy songs. Who does? I don't know anybody who writes happy songs, really.
I think it's a part of us as human beings that we search outside of ourselves for meaning.
I'm a kind of hard-wired pessimist. I can't help but see the world in a certain kind of way.
Sometimes the song isn't strong enough to contain the fiction, because memories are fictions.
I won't go into the details, but I ready myself for the day. I am a high-maintenance type of guy.
Look, when I look back, from 20 onwards, I was actually having a pretty good time, I have to say.
The way I take in the world is by seeing it; that is very much evident in the songs that I write.
A is for Answering all your prayers, N is for kNowing that your loverman's going to be the answer.
L.A. is full of screenwriters. I don't know why. On many levels, it's such a thankless occupation.
But if you're gonna dine with them cannibals Sooner or later, darling, you're gonna get eaten . . .
People think I'm a miserable sod but it's only because I get asked such bloody miserable questions.
The actualising of God through the medium of the love song remains my prime motivation as an artist.
I've always hated narrative songs. I hate those songs where, basically, it's an unfolding of a story.
Writing is a necessary thing for me, just to keep myself level. It has beneficial effects on my life.
I think it's an essential fact for any performer or artist to fail as poignantly as they can succeed.
I still feel very much an imposter in the whole music scene, which I'm quite happy about to be honest.
Being a parent can make you a horrible person at times, because you're pushed to the limit constantly.
I'm unable to really write the kind of song that doesn't have a visual element, which most songs don't.
I have an armchair interest in gardening, but I don't like to get my knees dirty. I don't have a garden.
I'm not a misogynist, so you can dispense with that. I think I've done wonders for the feminist movement.
A rock musician's career is short-lived. To extend it, you need to do other things to keep yourself fresh.
I've always been at war with the guitar. All vocalists are fighting a war with the electric rhythm guitar.
If you look around, complacency is the great disease of your autumn years, and I work hard to prevent that.
My father was a teacher and my mother also worked in the school, so the family has a background in education.
Brother, be a brother, fill this tiny cup of mine. And please, sir, make it whiskey: I have no head for wine!
I'm not religious, and I'm not a Christian, but I do reserve the right to believe in the possibility of a god.
It's an Australian thing to be dismissive. We find that endearing. Americans don't. They believe what you say.
If I'm hanging around too much, my wife and kids say, 'Hey, why don't you go downstairs and start a new novel?'
My responsibility as an artist is to turn up at the page or the piano or the microphone. The rest is up to God.
As Australians, we see the law as inherently bad. We have a real inherent distaste for authority in our makeup.
There's always pain around. That's one thing you can guarantee in life - there will always be a surplus of pain.
My records are basically a litany of complaints against the world, and I'm quite like that in real life as well.
People are always surprised to see clues to my being a normal kind of guy. As if I'm somehow letting the team down.
It's possible to get through life without a religious structure, but I don't think that's a very fruitful way to live.
The rock star is dying. And it's a small tragedy. Rock stars have blogs now. I have no use for that kind of rock star.
My music has to do with beauty, and it's intended to, if not lift the spirits, then be a kind of a balm to the spirits.
I have to be able to see the thing that's going on that I'm writing about, or else it just doesn't make any sense to me.
To my undying shame, I do read reviews. I don't read them all, but I like to get some kind of idea how things are going.
I don't know, maybe Australian humour isn't supposed to be funny. It's as dry as the Sahara, and I think people miss that.
Some people, myself in particular, have an adversarial relationship with the camera, and it sprouts up in every photograph.