Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
We drown our doubts in dry champagne and soothe our souls with fine cocaine. I don't know why I even care, we get so high and get nowhere.
We are living in a time when American popular music is finally being recognized as one of our most successful exports. The demand is huge.
There was an edge of, 'Go away kid, you're bothering me'. I've kicked myself a million times since. I could've discovered Whitney Houston.
This is our moment, here at the cross-roads of time. Time is relentless and as the past dissappears, we're on the verge of all things new.
People come from a certain generation and a certain whole way of looking at things, and you really do become a prisoner of your own world.
The result was magnificent . . . I became the father of two girls and two boys, lovely children by good fortune they all look like my wife.
When I look at great works of art or listen to inspired music, I sense intimate portraits of the specific times in which they were created.
Sing us a song you're the piano man. Sing us a song tonight. Cause we're all in the mood for a melody, And you've got us feeling all right.
What the world is saying to us human beings is, 'Don't stick to the old ways, learn to think anew.' And that's what musicians do every day.
I have been fortunate to have a career that has allowed me to travel the world and come in contact with many different cultures and people.
In an age of incompetence, I've been able to last in this crazy business. I actually know how to play my ax and write a song. That's my job.
In a way, we are magicians. We are alchemists, sorcerers and wizards. We are a very strange bunch. But there is great fun in being a wizard.
Everybody started calling my music rock and roll, but it wasn't anything but the same rhythm and blues I'd been playing down in New Orleans.
I think what really stays with me is the idea that you can write music about the texture of a wall, and everything is in some way connected.
[Madame Nhu was] the Sandra Dee of South Vietnam. If I were cast on a desert island with her, I would quickly make friends with the natives.
People always think I was just playing in a piano bar, but I only did that for about six months. The rest of the time I was playing in bands.
I don't belong in limos or private jets or on stage with people cheering me but that's what's kept me grounded because I know it's not right.
Mozart shows a creative power of such magnitude that one can virtually say that he tossed out of himself one great masterpiece after another.
If you put yourself in a situation of unpredictability and then find that it's completely possible to accept it, then you become an observer.
The justification of art is the internal combustion it ignites in the hearts of men and not its shallow, externalized, public manifestations.
I'm fascinated with what happens to the creative output when you isolate yourself from the approval and disapproval of the people around you.
Being invited to score for 'Black Swan' was a real honour. To have my work form part of such an amazing film is something I am very proud of.
So I would choose to be with you, That's if the choice were mine to make, But you can make decisions too, And you can have this heart to break
I have long admired Steinway pianos for their qualities of tone, clarity, pitch consistency, touch responsiveness, and superior craftsmanship.
I'm writing for the sake of writing music. Whether it gets heard or not isn't an issue for me. It keeps my own juices going and my mind active.
I wasn't born of a whistle or milked from a thistle at twilight No I was all horns and thorns sprung out fully formed, knock-kneed and upright.
I may play the same program from one recital to the next, but I will play it differently, and because it is always different, it is always new.
As long as there are memories, yesterday remains. As long as there is hope, tomorrow awaits. As long as there is friendship, today is beautiful.
Can anybody be given a great degree of creativity? No. They can be given the equipment to develop it-if they have it in them in the first place.
I was 23 years old. It was a wild time. I was covering everything that blew up - blackouts, Studio 54, son of Sam killer, and all of that stuff.
I am compared to other classical musicians, but most of them perform songs from other people, and most of those composers belong to another era.
It was so easy living day by day Out of touch with the rhythm and blues But now I need a little give and take The New York Times, The Daily News.
His name, even, is part of the marketing scheme, I mean, Thelonious Sphere Monk - how can you think of a better name to fit his style of playing?
I tend to stay up very late at night, so I wake up later in the day. This allows me to be in the middle of my workday when I am onstage at night.
There is no gender to my music. There's no male or female voice, no trite lyrics or poetry. It's much more abstract, so it lives with you longer.
I consider myself to be an inept pianist, a bad singer, and a merely competent songwriter. What I do, in my opinion, is by no means extraordinary.
Life is the game that must be played, this truth at least, good friends, we know; so live and laugh, nor be dismayed as one by one the phantoms go.
We need to take music out of the ivory tower - both for musicians and for the public. Otherwise, classical music will not survive the 21st century.
Most of the people interviewing me are far more square than me. I think it's the ET thing. I'm sitting there, my hair is combed, and I'm in a suit.
Some people know me because of my music and come and see me in my concerts but you very rarely see me or hear me in press or TV or radio magazines.
When we fill our souls up with creativity, artistry and intelligence ...we have a better chance at avoiding the behavior that leads to destruction.
You've got your passion. You've got your pride. But don't you know that only fools are satisfied? Dream on, but don't imagine they'll all come true.
Some people stay far away from the door if there's a chance of it opening up. They hear a voice in the hall outside and hope that it just passes by.
Twyla Tharp put it together from the material I wrote and recorded over my whole career. I thought it was pretty good, but how objective could I be?
When I have a lot of work to do my life is very distracted, so for me to concentrate on music I need to create a structure where I can focus better.
We didn't start the fire It was always burning Since the world's been turning We didn't start the fire No we didn't light it But we tried to fight it
When recordings replaced concerts as the dominant mode of hearing music, our conception of the nature of performance and of music itself was altered.
The problem with listening to music today is that there's so much of it everywhere. We've got used to hearing music without actually listening to it.
I grew up partially with classical music but listened to a lot of rock when I was young - I like acoustic, and folk from Mali and Armenia and Turkey.
For whatever reason, not all people are born with the particular gift of being able to express ourselves through music. And, believe me, it is a gift.