Top 100 Quotes About Paul Simon: Famous Quotes & Sayings About Paul Simon

#1. Somehow you can tell the difference when a song is written just to get on the radio and when what someone does is their whole life. That comes through in Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson. There is no separating their life from their music.

Lyle Lovett

#2. Paul Simon started piling up a lot of words, more than the bar could handle, and I stopped!

Joni Mitchell

#3. I didn't want to try and borrow kudos from Indonesian culture. I was trying to get a fresh perspective on these instruments. I'm not doing a Paul Simon Gracelands and stealing all this African music and not give anyone any credit.

Squarepusher

#4. One of the biggest obstacles I've overcome in my life was thinking I didn't deserve to be successful. Artistically I'm not as much of a heavyweight as someone like Paul Simon or Joni Mitchell, because I'm not a creator of original music, and I worried about that for years.

Bonnie Raitt

#5. Steve Howe met Paul Simon and said that Paul was very approving of our version of 'America.'

Chris Squire

#6. I'm probably the only one in the world you can name that's worked with Billie Holiday, Louie Armstrong, Ella, Duke, Miles, Dizzy, Ray Charles, Aretha, Michael Jackson, rappers. 'Fly Me to the Moon' was played on the moon by Buzz Aldrin. Sinatra. Paul Simon. Tony Bennett. I'm the only one.

Quincy Jones

#7. Paul Simon is my absolute hero. He's one of a kind. He wrote his own ticket in life by being himself.

Brett Dennen

#8. I read the graffiti written on the walls of my brain. Then I use my writing to give it voice so it won't simply be "whispered in the sounds of silence." (Apologies to Paul Simon)

Dick Peterson

#9. Then on to all the terrific american songwriters, from Tin Pan Alley to the Beatles, from Bob Dylan to Paul Simon. Whoever wrote and sang in the song form I have appreciated.

Tom Chapin

#10. I've been fascinated by music for as long as I can remember. I was the kid on the playground in the third grade who would tell other kids about Paul Simon or Depeche Mode.

Josh Groban

#11. I love Radiohead, which most people don't expect, and I listen to everything from Stevie Wonder to Steely Dan, Carole King, The Beach Boys, The Kinks, Beyonce Knowles, Vampire Weekend, The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Burt Bacharach, and Paul Simon.

Eliza Doolittle

#12. One of the disadvantages of poetry over popular music is that if you write a pop song, it naturally gets into people's heads as they listen in the car. You don't have to memorize a Paul Simon song; it's just in your head, and you can sing along. With a poem, you have to will yourself to memorize it.

Billy Collins

#13. But when someone says 'Paul Simon', don't you just inevitably think of a piece of wonder bread just sittin' there on a counter top?

Paul Simon

#14. My parents listened to music in our house all the time when we were growing up. It was everything from Dolly Parton to Paul Simon ... We packed in everything.

Clare Bowen

#15. People ask how I think up my thoughts. Mostly I think them up while reading Paul Simon's lyrics.

Robert Breault

#16. On Art Garfunkel - He makes Paul Simon look like LL Cool J.

Ian Gittins

#17. I was just reading about Paul Simon in 'Uncut', and it was fascinating. I never think about him much or think about his music or anything, but it's interesting to hear his ideas on stuff.

J Mascis

#18. I taught myself to play the guitar by listening to Paul Simon records, working it out note by note. He is an incredibly intelligent musician. He's not someone who has a natural outpouring of melody like McCartney or Dylan, who are just terribly prolific with musical ideas.

Douglas Adams

#19. There are some good songs, but not the kind of song-writing that I remember, that I like. Springsteen still does it. Paul Simon, and there are also good writers, but that doesn't dominate the charts.

Jackie DeShannon

#20. Illinois Senator Paul Simon, once said "The test for a Supreme Court nominee is not where he stands on any one specific issue. The test is this: Will you use your power on the court to restrict freedom or expand it"?

Dick Durbin

#21. I want to grow up with my audience. I don't expect to be getting through to the younger pop crowd. I learned that from Paul Simon.

Joe Strummer

#22. Somewhere in a burst of glory / Sound becomes a song.

Paul Simon

#23. I'm more interested in what I discover than what I invent.

Paul Simon

#24. And a rock feels no pain; And an island never cries.

Paul Simon

#25. Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again.

Paul Simon

#26. You can burn down my churches. But I shall be free.

Paul Simon

#27. How can you live in the Northeast?

Paul Simon

#28. Much of songwriting is simply a mystery.

Paul Simon

#29. People ask how I feel about getting old. I tell them I have the same question. I'm learning as I go.

Paul Simon

#30. When I first heard Elvis perform "Bridge Over Trouble Water" it was unbelivable,and I thought to myself, how the hell can I compete with that?

Paul Simon

#31. Simon Gathercole argues that both Paul and the Gospel writers considered the good news to have three basic elements: the identity of Jesus as Son of God and Messiah, the death of Jesus for sin and justification, and the establishment of the reign of God and the new creation.12

Timothy Keller

#32. When I was 15, I made a solo record. It made Artie very unhappy. He looked upon it as something of a betrayal.

Paul Simon

#33. The degree of customization possible through your Preferences screens is awesome.

Paul Simon

#34. Hide it in a hiding place where no one ever goes
Put it in your pantry with your cupcakes

Paul Simon

#35. I sort of recognize it, as opposed to shaping it. Oh, that's a good idea, that's a good line. I wonder where I can use that. And when you get into a rhyme group like 'not,' you got a lot of rhymes, you got a lot of choices. The more you do it, the luckier you get.

Paul Simon

#36. I have my books
And my poetry to protect me;
I am shielded in my armor,
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

Paul Simon

#37. Time, time, time, see what's become of me,
While I looked around,
For my possibilities;
I was so hard to please

Paul Simon

#38. Take two bodies and you twirl them into one, their hearts and their bones, and they won't come undone.

Paul Simon

#39. I won't disturb the slumber of feelings that have died. If I never loved I never would have cried ... I am a rock.

Paul Simon

#40. I know a man
He came from my home town
He wore his passion for his woman
Like a thorny crown
He said Dolores
I live in fear
My love for you's so overpowering
I'm afraid that I will disappear

Paul Simon

#41. The record company stay out of my way. Whenever the record is finished, they take it.

Paul Simon

#42. Anthony Heilbut has been a guide and a mentor to me. I know of no one who has the love and depth of knowledge of this extraordinary author.

Paul Simon

#43. People say a lie is just a lie, but I say why deny the obvious child.

Paul Simon

#44. Music is forever; music should grow and mature with you, following you right on up until you die.

Paul Simon

#45. You want to be a writer, don't know how or when? Find a quiet place, use a humble pen.

Paul Simon

#46. Improvisation is too good to leave to chance.

Paul Simon

#47. Why am I so soft in the middle when the rest of my life is so hard?

Paul Simon

#48. It's a big error to think that because you like somebody's work, you're going to like him.

Paul Simon

#49. Without Arthur's voice, I never would have enjoyed that success.

Paul Simon

#50. Lord, I am a surgeon and music is my knife. It cuts away my sorrow and purifies my life.

Paul Simon

#51. Couple in the next room bound to win a prize, they've been going at it all night long.

Paul Simon

#52. All God requires from us is to enjoy life and love. That's the whole point.

Paul Simon

#53. By the time I was 12 or 13, I felt that I was special, because I could play the guitar and write songs.

Paul Simon

#54. We were always able to sing and blend well together; that's our gift. But aside from that, we're really two different guys.

Paul Simon

#55. Being an artist doesn't mean that you're a good artist. That was the bargain I first made with myself: I'd say, I'm an artist, but I'm not really very good.

Paul Simon

#56. My voice is my improvisational instrument, the melody instrument. The guitar is harmonic structure. I'm not a good enough guitarist to improvise on it.

Paul Simon

#57. The public hungers to see talented young people kill themselves.

Paul Simon

#58. These are the days of lasers in the jungle, staccato signals of constant information ...

Paul Simon

#59. I've got a reason to believe we all be received in Graceland, Graceland, Memphis Tennessee.

Paul Simon

#60. Life I love you, all is groovy.

Paul Simon

#61. I don't think that Simon and Garfunkel as a live act compares to Simon and Garfunkel as a studio act.

Paul Simon

#62. And I must be what I must be and face tomorrow.

Paul Simon

#63. I didn't get how big it was until I went home, turned on the television and saw it on all the news, and later that night on the front pages of all the newspapers. Then I got it.

Paul Simon

#64. When I began making my own albums, the songs became funkier. They were more about the streets.

Paul Simon

#65. I want to rid my heart of envy, and cleanse my soul of rage before I'm through.

Paul Simon

#66. Every generation throws a hero up the pop charts.

Paul Simon

#67. Anybody can do bad work, but not everybody does good work.

Paul Simon

#68. The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenements halls and whispered in the sounds of silence.

Paul Simon

#69. I get the news I need on the weather report
And I have nothing to do today but smile

Paul Simon

#70. A phenomenon occurs but because you're in the middle of it, you just think it's your life-until it's over. And then you look back and say, What an unusual thing happened to me in the '60s.

Paul Simon

#71. I feel I should try to reveal. When you hit it right, you produce an emotional response in the listener that can be cathartic. When you're wrong, you're soppy, sentimental.

Paul Simon

#72. I would not be convicted by a jury of my peers, still crazy after all these years.

Paul Simon

#73. And she said 'Losing love is like a window in your heart,
Everybody sees you're blown apart,
Everybody feels the wind blow.'

Paul Simon

#74. Artie travels all the time. The rehearsals were just miserable. Artie and I fought all the time. He didn't want to do the show with my band; he just wanted me on acoustic guitar.

Paul Simon

#75. And you read your emily dickinson,
And I my robert frost.
And we note our place with bookmarkers
That measure what weve lost.

Paul Simon

#76. How much can you do with two voices? You can sing thirds or you can sing fifths or you can do a background harmony.

Paul Simon

#77. Don't want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon grave yard.

Paul Simon

#78. They've got a wall in China, it's a thousand miles long. To keep out the foreigners, they made it strong. And I've got a wall around me, you can't even see.

Paul Simon

#79. Given all the facts that I'm young and I'm in good health and I'm famous - that I have talent, I have money - given all these facts, I want to know why I'm so unhappy.

Paul Simon

#80. We just did what we'd done when we were an act in the '60s. But I found it impossible to hold a dialogue with 500,000 people. In a certain sense, it was numbing.

Paul Simon

#81. The first guy I really liked and was kind of obsessed with and had to seek out and find more of his films was Jean-Paul Belmondo. He was the main guy that I was obsessed with.

Simon Baker

#82. To get the stuff out of you, especially if what you're dealing with is yourself, requires you to open up and touch tender spots. You have to be anesthetized a little bit.

Paul Simon

#83. What threatens us today in the world of computers and other invasions of privacy is not a national ID card but a number of other things.

Paul Simon

#84. People talking without speaking,/ People listening without hearing ... Sounds of Silence.

Paul Simon

#85. Faith is an island in the setting sun, But proof is the bottom line for everyone.

Paul Simon

#86. I'm always going forward toward something, and that something is usually an album, because I like to record. I probably like to record more than I like to write.

Paul Simon

#87. A man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest.

Paul Simon

#88. Paul is a liar, he said so. (Romans 3:7.)

Simon Ewins

#89. If you can get humor and seriousness at the same time, you've created a special little thing, and that's what I'm looking for, because if you get pompous, you lose everything.

Paul Simon

#90. It was the year of the Beatles, it was the year of the Stones, it was 1964.

Paul Simon

#91. The Wisdom is old, the Koran is old, the Bible is old. Disagreements? Work 'em out.

Paul Simon

#92. Time it was And what a time it was, it was A time of innocence A time of confidences Long ago it must be I have a photograph Preserve your memories They're all that's left you

Paul Simon

#93. The more I get to thinking, the less I tend to laugh.

Paul Simon

#94. Jay Ashby is simply a great musician!

Paul Simon

#95. I was eating in a Chinese restaurant downtown. There was a dish called Mother and Child Reunion. It's chicken and eggs. And I said, I gotta use that one.

Paul Simon