Quote collection
301 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"I have always adored Mahler, and Mahler was a major influence on the music of the Beatles. John and me used to sit and do the Kindertotenlieder and Wunderhorn for hours, we'd take turns singing and playing the piano. We thought Mahler was gear."
"Sometimes when you write a thing you think, 'Oh, this is good', and it's not a modesty or an immodesty thing, you just... it's just the same with anything; when you write a piece you just figure, 'Oh yeah, I'm on a roll here. This is good; I'm getting the hang of this'. Some pieces are better than others."
"People don't like land mines, especially the survivors and the people who are living in the countries with them. They think they are cowardly, like we do, so I think it's down to the governments to actually just listen to the people and sign the treaty and get rid of all these things and there would be an end to it."
"My thing is about following the accidental, more than trying to paint an accurate bowl of apples. I enjoy most following the paint. It leads me somewhere else. I think I enjoy just letting the magic unfold and letting the spirit of the paint tell me where we're going."
"I did study Shakespeare, that was sort of my thing; I got a Literature A-level, which is my only claim to academic fame."
"I'm not really comfortable singing without accompanying myself on stage - I'm not used to it."
"Bach was so mathematical and I liked this idea that you could have one instrument going, 'One, two, three, four', and then you have another instrument going, [double time] 'One, two, three four', and another instrument going, [doubled again] 'One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four', so you could add twos and fours and eighths, and that happens a lot in Bach."
"I saw that Meryl Streep said, I just want to do my job well. And really, that's all I'm ever trying to do."
"I am not religious, but I am spiritual."
"I do have a spongelike ear or mentality or whatever you call it, but it's probably a bit subconscious."
"My record producer [David Kahne] said the major record labels these days are like dinosaurs sitting around discussing the asteroid. They know it's going to hit. They don't know when, they don't know where it's coming from. But it's sort of hit already. With iTunes, and all of that."
"My dad, bless him, was a musician. And his dad had thought that his music was rubbish."
"I'm always writing songs, and I've got a bunch that I want to record."
"I think a domestic situation can change you and your attitudes. I suppose if you did get a bit content, then you might not write savage lyrics."
"I guess the ultimate luxury professionally is to be able to change your direction, to work in another medium."
"I can't deal with the press; I hate all those Beatles questions."
"I didn't earn that much in record royalties. You've only got to look at my sales in 1980 to figure that one out."
"I think the pop industry is still a young man's game."
"I was still 15 when I met John Lennon at a village fete in Woolton, in Liverpool."
"I just start singing some words with a tune. I don't ever write a song thinking, Now I'll write a song about... ."