Music's Quotes

#1. I didn't think at all as a young child that music would be my profession. It was just something that one did along with going to Brownies or going to church or going to school or anything else that one did in sort of one's very young life.

Jessye Norman

#2. Personally, I've found that the kind of thing that I like is going into somebody else's area and not playing their music but doing whatever I do in their area.

Derek Bailey

#3. The music industry's very laid back while I'm very, very aggressive.

Adam Kluger

#4. I guess I'm a real fan of older music, and that's what shaped my taste and the way I sing.

Jessie Ware

#5. I love traditional music. But in any culture around the world, there is the historic and cultural music and everything that's been passed down and passed down, and hopefully you take that, and then you take it, you know, the next distance, and then somebody else takes it the next distance.

Robbie Robertson

#6. It's terrible for the culture of music. Like anything that is purely economic, it ignores the most important component.

Tom Waits

#7. It definitely seems like we are connecting with people, which is nice, because I've had a lot of music do the same for me. It's not like I don't I understand why we get the reactions we do.

Jon Crosby

#8. I don't think music can be held. I don't think artists can be put into boxes or places. It's all about creating and making the best music you can.

Trey Songz

#9. As a songwriter, it's very hard to listen to music that's not coming from the heart and soul, personally.

Jake Bugg

#10. That's a sound design thing but then we wanted to do music that would not disturb it and at the same time drive it.

A.R. Rahman

#11. I'm not supposed to be playing, the music is supposed to be playing me. I'm just supposed to be standing there with the horn, moving my fingers. The music is supposed to be coming through me; that's when it's really happening.

Sonny Rollins

#12. I wish I could play music. I think I get as closeas possible with the editing of the films. Over the years musichas been an even more important influence than-or as important as-film.There's no doubt about it. Painting, movement, dance, sculpture-it'sall in cinema.

Martin Scorsese

#13. Music gets inside you, music captures you. Music becomes your heartbeat. It's a drug and makes you feel whatever the song's about.

Ed Westwick

#14. It's weird: making a movie is like life compacted into three months. You have these very intense relationships with people, and you talk to them every day - your editor, the casting people, music people, your actors - then it ends. It's like a circus life.

Dito Montiel

#15. I mean, there's a hell of a lot of grounds for protest, but you don't do it through music.

Chico Hamilton

#16. Many old music hall fans were present at the funeral today of Fred 'Chuckles' Jenkins, Britain's oldest and unfunniest comedian. In tribute, the vicar read out one of Fred's jokes, and the congregation had two minutes silence.

Ronnie Barker

#17. I think my music is born out of the music that I personally like to listen to. I love amazing singer-songwriters and diverse artists but it's important to know your strengths.

Hoodie Allen

#18. If I put a value on my music, and no one's prepared to pay that, then more fool me, but the idea that the value is created by the consumer is an idiot plan; it can't work.

Robert Smith

#19. I've liked country music for forever. And Buck Owens is just one of many country guitarists I like. I think Buck's Sixties records are really progressive.

Buzz Osborne

#20. I don't like the word 'urban' because I think it's a bit of a generalisation and they use it to class music, but I don't think it's a word that necessarily classes music.

Taio Cruz

#21. My favorite way of working is if somebody gives me a piece of music, because I'm quite limited as a player, so it's my favorite thing if somebody gives me a piece of music, and then I can write lyrics and melodies.

Sinead O'Connor

#22. I've never missed a gig yet. Music makes people happy, and that's why I go on doing it - I like to see everybody smile.

Buddy Guy

#23. I'm very serious about what I write and who I allow to produce the music, because I want to make sure it's a true album, and not just something pushed out there to create hype and more fame for myself.

Alyson Stoner

#24. My love, wherever you are - whatever you are - don't lose faith. I know it's gonna happen someday to you.

Morrissey

#25. I tend to listen to music more than I read. I need to get into reading a bit more. The stuff I tend to read is usually non-fiction books more than fiction, but I've been trying to power my way through Dostoevsky's 'Crime and Punishment,' and I do enjoy it.

Isaac Hempstead-Wright

#26. Bon Jovi is most definitely the key to how I am able to write so much in a day

C.S. Woolley

#27. Writing a song doesn't heal things. Even if the song comes up with a solution, it's still only a theory. Going out and living my lyrics is a whole other deal. That takes courage.

Alanis Morissette

#28. I love 'White Christmas.' That's one of my favorites just because I love the music. I love the story, Bing Crosby. It's just one of my all time favorites. And it's hard to have a Christmas without seeing a little bit of Jimmy Stewart and angels running around town.

Scott Bakula

#29. Corina Bartra is a very intriguing singer. On Son Zumbon ... the music utilizes tricky rhythms, the leader's haunting voice, and plenty of short solos. There is no lack on intensity in this program.

Scott Yanow

#30. I was never as focused in math, science, computer science, etcetera, as the people who were best at it. I wanted to create amazing screensavers that did beautiful visualizations of music. It's like, "Oh, I have to learn computer science to do that."

Kevin Systrom

#31. The blues are like the fugue in 18th century. It's probably the music that belongs most to our time.

Michael Tippett

#32. There's a lot of ideology about "free", that we can have free services, free content, it's one of the reasons why the music industry which I defend has been decimated.

Andrew Keen

#33. You've got to be happy, you have to do this thing [music] for the love. It's not like you go into music because it's going to make a lot of money. It's something you do ... that's the thing. You got to accept all that hard work with it, too. And enjoy it, and love it.

Creed Bratton

#34. I feel like I have a very unique perspective especially for someone in the hip-hop genre. I'm not afraid to explore it, and how my upbringing then shapes my music and being a New York kid and all of that stuff ... that's really the most unique thing I can offer to the music in general.

Hoodie Allen

#35. Wherever the music comes from, if there is no focus behind it then it's just noise

Derrick May

#36. There's a thin line between interesting music and self-indulgence. We crossed it on the Passengers record.

Larry Mullen Jr.

#37. I don't relate to what's left of the music business. There doesn't seem to be any point to it anymore. The business that I grew up in and loved, we made records a different way - there were record companies, there were stores where you could buy albums.

Don McLean

#38. The Tinted Windows shows were very fun but it's very different for me as a performer. I'm not playing music - I'm just singing and I missed that. I miss rocking out on keys, drums, guitar ... whatever it is.

Taylor Hanson

#39. I really feel like there's a void in this world for music that acknowledges that spiritual aspect of these activities as well as just the sheer physicality of them.

Taraka Larson

#40. My mother insisted that I pursue music. I rented out my father's musical equipment and earned some money. As a child, I wasn't sure about a career goal, but I was always fascinated by electronic gadgets, specially musical equipment.

A.R. Rahman

#41. Everything comes out in blues music: joy, pain, struggle. Blues is affirmation with absolute elegance. It's about a man and a woman. So the pain and the struggle in the blues is that universal pain that comes from having your heart broken. Most blues songs are not about social statements.

Wynton Marsalis

#42. Music was my oxygen. It's what saved me from being a really lonely and scared teenager.

Corey Hart

#43. I'm probably at my least religious I've ever been in a while. When you're moved by music, that's always good. But I haven't been talking to God too much lately.

Stone Gossard

#44. I think I've tried to stay true to my music since the beginning. It's kind of hard because of the access and technology but I just do what I do.

Brian McKnight

#45. I always spend too much time on getting the details right. That's the problem with computers. They make it possible to change too much of the music after it's been recorded.

Hans-Peter Lindstrom

#46. At 82, Nelson (who wrote the song "On the Road Again," among a thousand or more others) is the elder statesman of country music, a steadying and powerful voice in the industry and on environmental issues, and he's still on the road much of the year. The music keeps calling.

Willie Nelson

#47. Michael Jackson doesn't really belong on this planet. He's the most important figure in the history of music. He'll be remembered far longer than George Bush will. 200 years from now, people will be talking about Michael Jackson, and no one's going to mention George Bush.

Brett Ratner

#48. I don't know why we, in the art world, cannot unpack things and sort of make hybrid notions of a practice. We're very rigid. It's funny, though; in music, we have no problem sampling, mixing and remixing. But in the art world, why can't we take little parts of history and mix it together?

Mark Bradford

#49. There's nothing I like better than talking to kids, just sharing the music with them. To relate to them, you need to play songs they're familiar with.

Jake Shimabukuro

#50. I'm working on my life story. I'm not decided if it's going to be a musical or a movie with music in it.

Dolly Parton

#51. I am the kind of person who does not like to carry baggage. In fact, I don't go back and listen to my own music. I believe in closing chapters and moving forward. That's what gives me peace.

A.R. Rahman

#52. 'Jersey Boys' has been the most amazing experience ever and has exposed an entire new audience to the music. It's great to see people of all ages coming to the show.

Frankie Valli

#53. I am right at the bottom compared to everybody else with press kits and demos and trying to get meetings. That's what I love about music and hate about it. That's why I respect people that are successful in the music business because you really have to build it from the ground up.

Drake

#54. I'm not very good at picking stuff up off the radio. It takes me way too long to learn other people's music.

R. Kelly

#55. It's the space you put between the notes that make the music.

Massimo Vignelli

#56. What's the point of getting up in the morning unless you're gonna have an adventure? As the moments of our life are ticking away you have to be aware that it needs to be an adventure

Hans Zimmer

#57. I'm hoping to knock down the walls and broaden the lane a little bit more for music that's pop music at the heart of it.

Santigold

#58. It's wonderful doing concerts in places like New York and London, but I feel a responsibility to also bring my work home, to bring world-class, classical music to Somerset.

Charles Hazlewood

#59. My story of success and failure is not just about music and being famous. It's about living and loving and trying to find purpose in this crazy world.

Wynonna Judd

#60. People sing each other's songs and they cultivate standards. That's the reason why we have folk music and folk stories. History is told through song.

Brandi Carlile

#61. I think it's important for people who love music to retain physical CDs or even vinyl, because it sounds so great and so much warmer than music over the internet.

Norah Jones

#62. It's rather like attending a university seminar where you are talking to a few gifted specialists who deliver a paper to an audience of their peers. That's one way of making music.

Gavin Bryars

#63. Music's something you feel. You have to feel it first before you hear it.

Elliott Yamin

#64. I'm glad people think I'm a badass. I'm a rock and roller, and I'm an R&B and a blueswoman. I don't do fairy music, although I love Celtic music and sensitive music. There's a balance between ballads and kick-ass songs.

Bonnie Raitt

#65. 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

#66. I do feel as if my own music as quite flawed, and it's that frailty or lack of technical proficiency that goes hand-in-hand with some sort of professionalism.

Justin Broadrick

#67. The secret to longevity in the music business is to change, and to be able to change. An actor has to assume other people's identities. A rock star doesn't need to do that. But change is important.

Nick Cave

#68. First, I think of myself as a brand, a businesswoman. Musician is something I just do because it's my passion - I love it and it's something I do for fun. I love music and I love to make people dance.

Paris Hilton

#69. You don't just have to be influenced by rock, or goth, anymore. It's okay to say, 'My influences are Tin Pan music from Bali and Rihanna.' There are still so many combinations that haven't been done yet.

Grimes

#70. It's pretty cool to see how far music can take you.

Luke Bryan

#71. People read into the music. I have a feeling that they can believe that I'm trying to put some emotion forward. It's not just some technical exercise.

Kieran Hebden

#72. I think it's a shame when you come across young actors and musicians who haven't had the time to learn their craft. It doesn't matter if it's acting or music; you really have to learn how to do it from the bottom up because unless you have a great work ethic ... fame is a terrible thing to have.

Denis Leary

#73. It's sometimes impossible to fit in all the music we want to fit in, in an hour and 45 minute show.

Mick Taylor

#74. Bob Marley performed the 'One Love Peace' concert in Jamaica with the two different warring political sides. There's always been that in black music and culture in general. It's no surprise because black music is such a reflection of what's going on in black life. It's not unusual for hip-hop.

Mos Def

#75. Making music and art is about expressing something that's universally human, maybe even beyond human, at best.

Cass McCombs

#76. That's the fantasy dream project, to collaborate with someone who preaches the gospel of art through music.

Frances Stark

#77. I think that one of the things about music is it's supposed to be spontaneous, it's supposed to be real human beings bouncing off of each other whether its from the stage or to the audience, or jamming with friends.

Tod Machover

#78. There's something about music that makes me feel like a different person, that feels like an escape.

Tatiana Maslany

#79. In a sense, I'm always hearing music of some sort, whether it's people talking or surface noise or whatever, because there is no privacy. So when I'm by myself, I just kind of like to be and reflect, and I can't do that when I'm listening to music. Because it's someone else's reflections, not mine.

Sarah McLachlan

#80. I've noticed a lot of younger artists have less fear of doing different sorts of things, whether it's various types of music, or gallery artists moving between video and sculpture and drawing.

David Byrne

#81. Music can kind of make you one-dimensional. People see what's on the surface and what you rap about, and they make their decision on who you are from there.

Chance The Rapper

#82. When I first saw Destiny's Child, I was in the fifth grade, and it made me want to sing and make music, and there would be these freestyles on the radio for what seemed like hours; it was just so cool to me.

Lizzo

#83. I started growing my audience in small clubs through word-of-mouth. I started making music that isn't necessarily commercially viable, and it's not necessarily marketable to my peers to a certain extent.

Kat Edmonson

#84. Life is everywhere. The earth is throbbing with it - it's like music. The plants, the creatures, the ones we see, the ones we don't see, it's like one, big, pulsating symphony.

Diane Frolov

#85. The only thing that's ever made sense to me has been sitting in the house by myself making music.

James Vincent McMorrow

#86. There's a kind of ear music ... a rhythmic synchronicity which creates a kind of heartbeat on the page.

Allan Gurganus

#87. Seated upon the convex mound Of one vast kidney, Jonah prays And sings his canticles and hymns, Making the hollow vault resound God's goodness and mysterious ways, Till the great fish spouts music as he swims.

Aldous Huxley

#88. Anyone who understands Jazz knows that you can't understand it. It's too complicated. That's what's so simple about it.

Yogi Berra

#89. The Germans were much more graphical. The expressionism is much more than cinema. It was a movement with artists, painters, music and architecture, so it's really graphic and visual. And the French were something else.

Michel Hazanavicius

#90. Music controls moods and accents life's moments. It's necessary for every situation.

Chuck Inglish

#91. When people say you're doing something radical in rock or dance music, I'm not sure how special that is. What we do is so old-fashioned. It's like trying to do something innovative in tap-dancing.

Jonny Greenwood

#92. But it's not just "Do you want a hit?" More importantly, it has to be something we - the artist and I - like. If you go in just wanting a hit song, it's not going to happen that way. You have to first be committed to making music you like.

Lukasz Gottwald

#93. P.S. I'm going to throw an absolutely mind-blowing fact your way. I'm not kidding, either. The country of Uganda is obsessed with Celine Dion. They dedicate entire days to broadcasting her music. They love her that much. Five words. My. Heart. Will. Go. On. Yeah.

Fisher Amelie

#94. It's always a pleasure to perform for people who love country music. And Australians definitely fall into that category. Each time I go back, I learn something new about the country, and I get to see some of the most beautiful places on the planet.

Joe Nichols

#95. It's the music. Your heart is in your ears.

Bob Marley

#96. Music is a gut thing. You're working in a medium which is more in touch with the primal than the modern. A gig is a ritual. There's a congregation.

Siobhan Fahey

#97. Music is funny. I shouldn't even ever talk about music, because you can have all the ideas in your head, and it never goes exactly the way that you think it's gonna go.

Alicia Keys

#98. Whatever has made, or does make, or may make music, should be held sacred as the golden bridle-bit of the Shah of Persia's horse,and the golden hammer, with which his hoofs are shod.

Herman Melville

#99. I don't feel that electronic music has to stand on the back of urban artists or anyone else to be recognized. It's great music.

Kaskade

#100. When we started writing this kind of music in the beginning, I didn't think that many people would listen to it, but over the years our fan base just kept growing and growing. Now, it's like we do it for us and our fans.

Jeff Hanneman