Music quotes
3.1K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside music — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"I think the whole question of meaning in music is difficult enough even if you hear me playing live right now in the same room! What I mean and what you take from it may be two quite different things anyway."
"The author's conviction on this day of New Year is that music begins to atrophy when it departs too far from the dance; that poetry begins to atrophy when it gets too far from music; but this must not be taken as implying that all good music is dance music or all poetry lyric. Bach and Mozart are never too far from physical movement."
"If pop music reflects the culture, this will surely go down as the era in which people rose up and realized it was fun to dance at parties."
"I'm just a singer/songwriter and entertainer and I miss people and the energy of the crowd. When I play live it's a lovefest with me and my audience. It's how I get my rocks off."
"If I hadn't been a woman, I'd have been a drag queen"
"I had to get rich so I could afford to sing like I was poor again."
"Music is my personal addiction. So much of everything I've done has only been to open more doors for the music itself. It all gets back to the fact that I am, first of all, a songwriter and a singer."
"I feel fortunate that I've had a lot of songs recorded by other people, because I take my songwriting very seriously. It's only those people that have followed me over the years and really know my work that know how serious I am about all of it - including the way I look. You can't take my high heels from me, you can't have my long fingernails, you can't take all this hair from me, because it's part of this thing that I've become. I wouldn't want to give any of it up. Do I have to be ugly to be a songwriter? This is the way I am, and it's what I choose to be."
"My music is so mine, it's hard to turn it over to someone else. I have to be really involved in the production. It's like someone else taking care of your kids - if they don't treat them well, you're going to be pissed off. I'm actually co-producing [Backwoods] with my guitar player of 20 years, Kent Wells. We make a good combination... I think we're going to have a real good record."
"Johnny Cash has only passed into the greater light. He will only become more important in this industry as time goes by."
"Music, I suppose, will be the thing that sustains me in the time of my life when I am too old for sex and not quite ready to meet God. It has always been an essential part of me."
"Yeah, it's more like playing what you think is appropriate for the moment, not forcing any particular style."
"I'm very much a traditionalist, but I think it's important to know about tradition so that you can evolve the music you are deciding to make."
"You could live without the opera singer, but not without the services of the baker. On this ground you might say that the baker performs a greater service; but no lover of music would agree."
"I just wanted a style of music all my own."
"When you've got nothing, you've got nothing to loose."
"A hungry mob is an angry mob."
"Sweet harmonious sounds give exquisite joy to human beings capable of appreciating music. I delight in hearing harmonious tones made by the human voice, by musical instruments, and by both combined."
"We live in a post-authentic world, and today authenticity is a house of mirrors. It's all just what you're bringing when the lights go down. It's your teachers, your influences, and your personal history. At the end of the day, it's the power and purpose of your music that still matters."
"Music has no effect on research work, but both are born of the same source and complement each other through the satisfaction they bestow"
