Guitar quotes
1.8K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside guitar — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"Keith Richards ... was once asked how he came up with all those amazing guitar riffs. His answer? He just starts playing until he makes the right mistake. In other words he's optimistic he will create something good by virtue of getting something "wrong.""
"I'm into playing guitars, not into figuring out what else goes on with them."
"I started writing when I was 17. I got an acoustic guitar for my birthday after I discovered Bob Dylan and James Taylor."
"There's a weird period of learning how to play guitar where your fingers are constantly messed up a handful."
"There are no rules or certain methods. I usually start with the guitar or piano and sing melodies over the chords. The lyrics seem to be born out of that, and the fact that it's still a mystery to me is my favorite part."
"When I was 17 I got a guitar for my birthday and started discovering Bob Dylan and James Taylor and the whole '60s thing, and that made me want to make songs, to go beyond just playing an instrument. I needed to write I guess."
"If you want to have any success in politics, sing softly and carry a big guitar."
"At the school where I went you were able to check out instruments like you check out a library book, if your parents signed for you and vouched for you. Then after you had it for a little while you could decide if you were interested in taking lessons or you could also get your own gear. Or you could turn that instrument in for another one and try something else. So that's how I got my hands on the guitar."
"I can't play guitar, but I can sure make it howl."
"Link Wray and Gene Vincent.... two of the greatest unknowns of rock 'n' roll."
"I'm really very embarrassed about my guitar playing, in one way, because it's very poor. I can never move but I can make a guitar speak."
"Barney Kessel is incredible. He's just amazing . . . . Nobody can play guitar like that"
"Like Paul Kraston said, all I ask in life is a water bed, a TV and a typewriter. Well, I'll just have an ordinary bed, a TV and a guitar."
"My guitar playing is a synthesis of traditional American acoustic style and Urban Pop and RB."
"Sam [Phillips] wanted I Walk The Line up - you know, up-tempo. And I put paper in the strings of my guitar to get that (vocalizing) sound, and with the bass and the lead guitar, there it was. Bare and stark, that song was when it was released. And I heard it on the radio and I really didn't like it, and I called Sam Phillips and asked him please not to send out any more records of that song."
"We [with Rick Rubin] would focus on the ones that we did like, that felt right and sounded right. And if I didn't like the performance on that song, I would keep trying it and do take after take until it felt comfortable with me and felt that it was coming out of me and my guitar and my voice as one, that it was right for my soul."
"The expertise displayed by each musician is jaw-dropping and it's matched by their sensitivity and taste... Lizzy Hoyt displays equal mastery of the fiddle, harp and guitar, complemented by an otherworldly voice. To top it off, she comes across as a truly natural and relaxed, people loving performer."
"There once was a girl who found herself dead. She peered over the ledge of heaven and saw that back on earth her sister missed her too much, was way too sad, so she crossed some paths that would not have crossed, took some moments in her hand shook them up and spilled them like dice over the living world. It worked. The boy with the guitar collided with her sister. "There you go, Len," she whispered. "The rest is up to you."
"Writing music and playing guitar was really what I wanted to do forever."
"We're just musically and rhythmically retarded. We play so hard that we can't tune our guitars fast enough. People can relate to that."
