"I tried to make guitars that were close to what my heroes played. That's the way it's done. My experience is that you have to do it like a musician. You have to learn the language before you can learn to be a novelist."
"Nobody gives twenty-five million dollars to anybody if they're not getting twenty-five million worth out of it. Forget it. It just doesn't happen."
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Source: Paul Robeson, Philip Sheldon Foner (1978). “Paul Robeson speaks: writings, speeches, interviews, 1918-1974”, Brunner-Routledge
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More quotes by Paul Reed Smith
"The world is in great need of more music education. When students play music, it allows a part of their artistic mind to express itself, which is very important in helping to balance a child intellectually, spiritually, and emotionally."
"I'm pretty good at letting people do what they are good at, that's why they're experts."
"Somebody's going to wake up and their job in life is going to be to make guitars. There are a lot of good, talented people."
"In the camera business, you won't survive if you don't innovate. In the guitar business you may or may not. The guitars being sold were designed between '48 and '59, Gibson SGs in '61."
"I change guitars as they come and go. I have one I played for almost a decade, but I've put it away. It was the first McCarty. Now, I'm playing one I grabbed off the line. I've been playing it ever since."