Top 100 Paul Weller Quotes
#1. The Zombies were really unique - they had elements of jazz and classical music in their songs and songwriting. They had a very, very different sound compared to a lot of their contemporaries at the time.
Paul Weller
#2. I was always taught as a kid that if there's anything you want in life, you've got to work towards it. I guess that sort of stayed with me, really. But also, for me, from the time I was, like, 10 years old, all I ever wanted to do was be in a band and make music.
Paul Weller
#4. I think I come from a time when all the artists I grew up with and I loved always used to try and push the boundaries, and there doesn't seem so much of that, really.
Paul Weller
#5. There's more to distract people, isn't there? When I was a kid there was music and football and clothes. And that was kind of it, really. Those three things defined you as a person.
Paul Weller
#6. We can't stop a baby in Africa from starving to death ... but we can afford enough technology and weaponry to blow the world up a million times over.
Paul Weller
#7. I think politicians are so far out of step with what people really want.
Paul Weller
#8. Playing live is what it's all about for me. It's cathartic, it's emotional, it's about communing with people. The way you feel after a gig is a such a powerful thing.
Paul Weller
#9. Led Zeppelin would never have reformed if he or Jimmy Page were bald.
Paul Weller
#10. When I lived in a little flat in Pimlico in 1981, I'd write in the hallway. As you walked in, there was a tiny little recess type thing, hardly a hallway, really, and I'd sit there writing songs with my guitar.
Paul Weller
#11. I'm sure there's a subconscious 'go for it' thing with turning 50. You want to do as much as possible and there are thoughts of how little time we have on the planet. For a lot of musicians in their 50s, the best days are behind them. I'd like to try and show that there is a future.
Paul Weller
#12. I don't think about what I can't do or what I shouldn't be doing. I just think there are endless possibilities musically, really.
Paul Weller
#13. I still love playing music. It was all I ever wanted to do, and I got the chance to do it.
Paul Weller
#14. In all honesty, I don't know what one song can change.
Paul Weller
#15. I hear an album so many times during the course of making it that when I've just finished it, I don't want to hear it again. After you've taken a little bit of time away from it, you can come back to it, which can be scary. I'm happy with 'Sonik Kicks,' man.
Paul Weller
#16. There is a shy side to me that evaporates when I play on stage, and I like that. I think it's another facet of my character, and I need to do that.
Paul Weller
#17. People say that if you're still angry at 52, you're not an angry young man, just a grumpy old git.
Paul Weller
#18. I think the biggest influence for me is when I hear a great piece of music, whatever the style, I'm kind of inspired by that greatness and I'm inspired to try and obtain something that comes close to that greatness.
Paul Weller
#19. Coming from a little suburban town, I wasn't a hip city kid. I was quite the opposite, really. Songs like 'Saturday's Kids' rang a bell for kids all over the country. That song was about the kids I grew up with.
Paul Weller
#20. I'd like to think I've left something in the world. Without in any way trying to be morbid, but life is very short, and I'd like to think I'd leave some body of work that would inspire other musicians long after I've gone.
Paul Weller
#21. There are so many artists who get to my age that get comfortable and just stick in a groove, and I really don't want to do that.
Paul Weller
#22. No one told Miles Davis or BB King to pack it in. John Lee Hooker played literally up to the day he died. Why should pop musicians be any different?
Paul Weller
#23. Most people my age, their musical life ended in the '80s. They stick with what they know. But my tastes are much broader. And I don't want to stop learning.
Paul Weller
#24. There are areas of music that I've never been to before, so that's always nice thing to have in life. That there are other areas you haven't been to. You haven't covered all the ground, and there's plenty more uncharted territory to cover as well.
Paul Weller
#25. Of course I'm proud of what I've done, but I'm interested in what's next. I want to be relevant now, in 2012. I've done my bit for the past. I've only ever been about what's next, really, and I'll be that way until I keel over.
Paul Weller
#26. I think the world is really small today, and fashion, from that end of it, it's instantaneous everywhere.
Paul Weller
#27. For me, the best thing I can do is play live. The best way for me to put over what I'm trying to do is to play live. Whether it's an acoustic show, electric or whatever ... if I shine at all, that's where it all really happens - it just took me a while to rediscover that.
Paul Weller
#28. There have been records I've been really, really pleased with that haven't connected with people. But I felt good about them.
Paul Weller
#29. I think part of what we do is there is a bit of dandy influence, always, or a little sprinkle of it. Not literal Savile Row dandy, but there's a bit of sartorial dandiness in everything that we do - every collection that we do.
Paul Weller
#30. I'm so lucky, I'm just really grateful for what I've got around me - children and my wife and everything else.
Paul Weller
#31. I want to hear as much music as I possibly can before I leave this mortal coil but it's impossible to hear it all because there's so much of it.
Paul Weller
#32. I never get too many problems. You can never please everyone anyway, obviously. And some people take the easy route and just play the greatest hits, and their audience is happy to hear that as well, and that's fine, but it wouldn't please me. But it doesn't trouble me.
Paul Weller
#33. I really enjoy playing America. I like the audiences there. It's the home of a lot of music I grew up with.
Paul Weller
#34. I wear jeans and a T-shirt sometimes. I just like clothes - since the first time I can remember, like age ten or eleven; I was just obsessed with music and clothes. Just like a lot of people in England from my generation.
Paul Weller
#35. I just pretty much love from 1966 to 1972, that's my time. I think everything that needs to be said was said within that time. That's just a subjective thing, as well.
Paul Weller
#36. Going to college was never an option. I was passionate about music, but how much talent I actually had was another matter.
Paul Weller
#38. There were aspects of stardom I didn't like, which were of no consequence, really, but the positive things far outweighed the negative. By the time I came to write 'Setting Sons,' I felt my writing was more like prose, set to music.
Paul Weller
#39. You can listen to music at any moment in the day or night. Which is great, but I think it kind of devalues it as well.
Paul Weller
#40. You do your runway show, and it's all over the Internet before I see anything on there.
Paul Weller
#41. Even somebody like The Black Keys or Royal Blood, they all have this original roots base to what they do.
Paul Weller
#42. It is nice to make a record and people like it, and it's encouraging.
Paul Weller
#43. I'm very, very open to experimenting with different people and trying to find different methods of writing and making music.
Paul Weller
#44. I only put an album out every two or three years.
Paul Weller
#45. The Beatles changed the world. They certainly changed my world, and many, many other individuals as well.
Paul Weller
#46. I was such a massive fan of all the '60s pop bands, but if I had to single out one band, it would definitely be The Beatles.
Paul Weller
#47. I'm still a mod, I'll always be a mod, you can bury me a mod.
Paul Weller
#48. The first thing I bought that was really stylish was in 1969 when I was eleven. I saved up for a black, grey and white tie-dye grandad vest. It was too big - they weren't catering for kids my age - and hung off me, but I loved it.
Paul Weller
#49. Everyone gets frustrated and aggressive, and I'd sooner take my aggression out on a guitar than on a person.
Paul Weller
#50. I'm always looking for something. Not in an unhappy way. I just like to try different things. I don't want to be morbid, but I'm not getting any younger.
Paul Weller
#51. When I got into the Beatles, I must have only been about six or seven but old enough to take notice. We used to have an old radiogram which, for readers of a certain age, was like a big cabinet thing with a record player inside it.
Paul Weller
#52. I've always had self-belief, though my sensitive side has never been fully appreciated. For every 'Down in the Tube Station at Midnight,' I've written an 'English Rose.' People forget.
Paul Weller
#53. All my children inspire me in life, and that always comes out in the writing.
Paul Weller
#54. I never saw myself as a spokesman for a generation. It was all a bit heavy for me. I saw myself as a songwriter and wrote for myself, which I still do, and I also wanted to communicate with my audience.
Paul Weller
#55. The way that house music has become so white and so sanitized over the decades and the fact it's still going on, well I think it's sad really, but at the time I really loved it. I loved all the black house music that was coming out of Chicago and New Jersey, which I just thought was really soulful.
Paul Weller
#56. Our campaigns have always been based on what we consider music icons that transcend generations and they're not of the moment - they continue to evolve.
Paul Weller
#57. I am aware of the words 'national treasure' being attached to me occasionally. It just makes me feel old.
Paul Weller
#58. I had a total belief in The Style Council. I meant every word and felt every action.
Paul Weller
#59. I don't like the royal family, I don't like the establishment, I don't like the civil service.
Paul Weller
#60. I don't really wanna talk about politics, I'm not clever enough.
Paul Weller
#61. The Jam were a good band, however I feel that the Style Council were better. A lot of people I know will disagree with me. Some things we did with The Style Council were misinterpreted or over their heads.
Paul Weller
#62. Playing music is a lifetime's work. And if you want to carry on with it, you have to try to better yourself. You have to see where the music can take you.
Paul Weller
#63. I play out my role, I've even been out walking -They tell me that it helps, but I know when I'm beaten ...
Paul Weller
#64. The only time I ever really got into rap was back in the early '90s, and bands like A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Gang Starr. Musically, they were really interesting. But when hip-hop acts start sampling Sting or Phil Collins, then I just don't get it at all.
Paul Weller
#65. I think people are just really disappointed, disappointed with Blair as well, who's just like Bush's lapdog. I think everyone's just disillusioned with politics in our country, and it must be the same in your country.
Paul Weller
#66. In my world [of fashion] there's more things that kind of affect it. There's the retailers we do business with, our own stores, my merchandising team ... Everybody has opinions, and so you definitely have to filter through a lot.
Paul Weller
#67. If you're into a certain band, you're into the way they dress.
Paul Weller
#68. I've always liked my clothes, even before I could properly afford them. Clothes for me were never a cloak, a cover. They were how I chose to express myself.
Paul Weller
#69. So much is filtered by pop music today, because the music industry is driven by single, single, single, single, the next single, not the nurturing of artists and that kind of thing.
Paul Weller
#70. I'm definitely obsessed about artists and the type of music and the playing and the tone and all that kind of thing - I'm not obsessed about what the best Beatles album is. I just think if The Beatles are great, they're great.
Paul Weller
#71. I suppose it's nice to have some surprise in life and to surprise yourself in life and see what else you can do.
Paul Weller
#72. If we get through for two minutes only it will be a start!
Paul Weller
#73. My own personal theory is that all popular music, in whatever form it is, to me, it all comes from Africa. Whether it's filtered through America or whatever - African-American. But I still think there's something in that roots music that's very, very African, and I think that's what unites people.
Paul Weller
#74. I think you have to satisfy yourself first and foremost.
Paul Weller
#75. In the early-'60s, when you look at that period of time - up to the mod time - when everybody was wearing skinnier suits and skinny lapels and skinny ties - that came out of the States, and that was quite cool.
Paul Weller
#76. I kept the first Rickenbacker I ever got, a little short-scale John Lennon-type model. And I've got a couple of 12-string models, which are really nice, and I've got a Pete Townshend model, which Pete gave me a few years ago. But that's about it.
Paul Weller
#77. I look for that stimulation constantly. I'm looking for inspiration and stimulation. Not bored with what we've done.
Paul Weller
#78. In my old age, my mind gets more open, and I listen to so many different types of music and I guess that all reflects in my work.
Paul Weller
#79. People say you make your best work when you're in despair and all that, and at your lowest - but for me, I think happiness makes you positive, and I think that's a good creative place to write from.
Paul Weller
#80. Life is a drink and you get drunk when you're young.
Paul Weller
#81. It's important to know all those things, but part of our jobs is to move people along and to make people excited to buy music or buy clothes, and give them enjoyment, I think, too.
Paul Weller
#82. I get labelled as just being about one thing, but there's lots of layers to what I do. It's just lazy journalism, but people start to accept it. If people spent an hour in my car driving around London and listening to the stuff I listen to, they'd hear some interesting stuff.
Paul Weller
#83. You can't live a lie. You have to follow your heart.
Paul Weller
#84. I'm not big on rap, to be honest. I just don't get it. It's angry people shouting. I like a song, melodies, people singing.
Paul Weller
#85. Music is the most natural thing in the world. When we go to a gig and we all like it and we share that experience, it's the same sense of communion as a sacred rite in Borneo or wherever it may be; it just gets dressed up different. Its good for the soul.
Paul Weller
#86. There's such a wealth of great music, clothes or whatever. There is so much great stuff out there, that why would you not still be interested if you've grown up in that kind of culture?
Paul Weller
#87. I think anybody goes through a crisis of confidence from time to time. You have to kind of doubt yourself, sometimes. It's the way forward.
Paul Weller
#88. I take my hat off to people like the Stones, but it's not for me. I couldn't do that. Jagger is brilliant and long may he rock. I couldn't make my career out of old songs; it would do my head in.
Paul Weller
#89. I have to do what I'm doing at the time. That's the most important thing. You might lose some people along the way, and you might gain other people on the way, that's just the way it is. But nevertheless, if you're driven by something, there is no argument about it; that's what you have to do.
Paul Weller
#90. No man should have cowboys boots in his wardrobe. That's fair enough, isn't it? Unless you're a cowboy, of course.
Paul Weller
#91. If you're in music, you're in music, and if you're in music you just want to keep making records and playing. That's what it's about, isn't it? At least, that's what I always thought it was about, anyway.
Paul Weller
#92. I never, ever wanted to be the Rolling Stones. Bless their hearts, but I don't necessarily want to go on doing the same old thing for the next 10, 20 years ... I could see how easy it is to get into that rut, the whole touring mindset.
Paul Weller
#93. It's a global fashion thing; because of the Internet it has gotten really small. It's cluttered, but it's gotten small.
Paul Weller
#94. I didn't imagine getting to 50, let alone still be playing music. When I was 18, I thought it'd all be over by the time I was 21.
Paul Weller
#95. I've bought clothes based on record covers. Particularly from the formative music that turned me onto it in the first place when I was a kid, with the Beatles and the Small Faces. A lot of those Sixties soul artists were in really sharp sharkskin or mohair suits, and Motown artists looked amazing.
Paul Weller
#96. It's just something internal that says, 'I've got to do this now. This is what I'm doing now.'
Paul Weller
#97. I'm always looking forward to what I'm doing now, and what's ahead.
Paul Weller
#98. I'd heard a lot of Motown and Stax when I was a kid, but the more well-known end of it. On Jam tours, we had a DJ called Ady Croasdell who ran a '60s club. He turned me on to underground stuff and what people call northern soul. It just blew my mind.
Paul Weller
#99. Getting to No. 1 makes everyone feel better; of course it does. But it's swings and roundabouts with these things. Sometimes you make a great record, and it clicks with people. And other times it passes them by; there's nothing you can do. It's still the same record.
Paul Weller
#100. It's quite liberating to get to a certain age, 'cos you're not chasing number one hits or trying to be an international superstar. I've done all that. I'm not out to prove much more to anyone but myself really, to be an artist and see if there is a new undiscovered music out there for me to make.
Paul Weller
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