Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
It was really strange for me when I started to play concerts in America where the audiences were all sitting down.
I was just getting tired of the image bullshit...that man of mystery trip and what have you. What's that all about?
I have seen without perceiving I have been another man Let me pierce the realm of glamour So I know just what I am.
Someone once described me as a maverick and that's what I would say. I'm a maverick not by choice but by conviction.
My thinking musically has always been more advanced - it is difficult to get it down onto paper sometimes, even now.
My records do not require a lot of thought of 'What is this?' and 'What is that?' That would be too contrived for me.
Laying underneath the stars Can be so much fun Especially when you're feeling good When you're with the one you love.
I write songs. Then I record them. And later, maybe I perform them on stage. That's what I do. That's my job. Simple.
I think we're going a bit too fast at the minute. The rate we're going is like we're going over the edge of the hill.
You take stuff from different places, and sometimes you stick a line in because it rhymes, not because it makes sense.
I've never felt like I was born with a silver spoon at all, although I've felt like howling at the moon a lot of times!
Way across the country where the hillside mountains glide, the dynamo of your smile caressed the barefoot virgin child.
And I want to rock your gypsy soul Just like way back in the days of old And magnificently we will fold into the mystic
I write songs. Then, I record them. And, later, maybe I perform them on stage. That's what I do. That's my job. Simple.
I went back to Belfast and started a club, the Maritime. No one had thought about doing a blues club, so I was the first.
I wanted to find out why I wasn't getting off on what I was doing and try and make some sense out of the evolution of it.
The trip had become boring. It wasn't exciting anymore to totally be a singer/songwriter because it wasn't working for me.
Sometimes, when the spirit moves me I can do many wondrous things I wanna know when the spirit moves you Did ye get healed?
I'm a dweller of the threshold and I'm waiting at the door, and I'm standing in the darkness, I don't want to wait no more.
It will make you feel good, and it will make you feel whole, when the spirit moves you and it fills you through and through.
Being famous was extremely disappointing for me. When I became famous it was a complete drag and it is still a complete drag.
I felt kind of bored at the prospect of writing some more of my own songs because I really wasn't saying what I wanted to say.
From the dark end of the street - To the bright side of the road - We'll be lovers once again on the - Bright side of the road
I'm very lucky, I'm happy with life because my experiences led me to do what I had to do. I don't have any regrets whatsoever.
If you're a pop singer, you don't need to evolve. You just get a set together, have some hit songs and play them over and over.
Shivers up and down my spine It's a feeling so divine Let me go back for a while Got to go back for a while To that magic time.
Even today, skiffle is a defining part of my music. If I get the opportunity to just have a jam, skiffle is what I love to play.
I find it extremely difficult talking about my songs because there's so many different things that can make a song come together.
I'm talking about noise rock. I don't think that noise rock element belongs in jazz. It's not for me anyway; it just doesn't fit.
Jazz comes from a tradition where it swings. Swing was the main ingredient of jazz. And once it loses the swing...well, that's it.
What I like is natural music. It's like I was born with a gift to do something naturally, which I have no choice but to followup on.
A famous person to themselves, they don't get up in the morning and think, I'm famous. I'm not famous to me. Famous is a perception.
Leave your thoughtlessness behind you then you may begin to understand. Clear the emptiness around you with the waving of your hand.
Into the Music was about the first album where I felt, 'I'm starting here'...the Wavelength thing, I didn't really feel that was me.
Become enraptured by the sights and sounds in intrigue of nature and beauty, come along with me and take it all in. Come here my love.
I just can't stand it [jazz/rock]. It just doesn't sound right to me. It doesn't hit me...it doesn't get me...it just doesn't grab me.
When I started studying tenor saxophone as a kid in Belfast, I did so with a guy named George Cassidy, who was also a big inspiration.
[You Got To Make It Through The World] it's kind of a survival song. Survival is what's happening and it's basically a song about that.
When I think of that dear rugged cross where the dear Saviour gave his all... When I feel like I'm on my last go round, see me through.
My experiences with dope were not good for me. I had to go another route. Because in my experience, dope didn't give me those insights.
If you're putting somebody down, you're doing it because you're just seeing a part of yourself that you don't like. That's all that is.
I just wanted to have a look at my whole musical career, get right back to when I started and why I started doing it in the first place.
I don't like to condemn people because what that means is that you're only condemning yourself about a part of you that you can't stand.
I think I opened up an area with Astral Weeks that hit a lot of peoples' nerves. But you can't really say that they're my favorite songs.
My responsibility is to fulfil what that natural thing is. The thing that I dislike about pop rock Top 40 music is that it's not natural.
When I started you were more in touch with the people you were playing to. There wasn't the distance or the separation that there is now.
Performing was the natural thing originally and the rest of it [records and so on] is just like offshoots of that. That's how I see it anyway.
Don't lose the wonder in your eyes It's right there when you smile... If we go back, for a while Let me go back, for a while To that magic time
There's always got to be a struggle. What else is there? That's what life is made of. I don't know anything else. If there is, tell me about it.
These days politics, religion, media seem to get all mixed up. Television became the new religion a long time back and the media has taken over.