Reading Music Quotes

#1. I was improvising before I was reading music. I was just trying to play things on the clarinet by ear. I think my ear is one of my greatest assets.

Pete Fountain

#2. I don't like reading music. It's like learning a language. You can't read music proficiently overnight. It takes time, it's boring work.

William Eggleston

#3. The things which can make life enjoyable remain the same. They are, now as before, reading, music, fine arts, travel, the enjoyment of nature, sports, fashion, social vanity (knightly orders, honorary offices, gatherings) and the intoxication of the senses.

Johan Huizinga

#4. I've always been that way. I'm not very good at reading music but I'm pretty quick at picking things up.

Roy Wood

#5. Reading music is like listening to flowers. I don't understand the concept.

Paul Westerberg

#6. Reading music is something that's inherently hateful to me. It makes music like mathematics.

Robert Quine

#7. 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

#8. How good are the best musical imaginations? Can a trained musician, swiftly reading a score, tell just how that voicing of dissonant oboes and flutes over the massed strings will sound?

Daniel Dennett

#9. Three films a day, three books a week and records of great music would be enough to make me happy to the day I die.

Francois Truffaut

#10. I think reading is important in any form. I think a person who's trying to learn to like reading should start off reading about a topic they are interested in, or a person they are interested in.

Ice Cube

#11. I was pretty lucky to get into Berklee at all. I never really had any theory or music-reading capabilities; I was completely by ear.

Madi Diaz

#12. When I'm not writing music, I'm playing guitar, or reading philosophy. So all I have left is just an hour or two for Claudia Schiffer.

Richard Pinhas

#13. I listen to a lot of Christian music, and reading my Bible calms me down immensely.

Lolo Jones

#14. I was just working on music and reading. It was relaxing. I would just stay up so late for no reason because I was bored.

Jack Tatum

#15. I needed to really pursue music and learn what I needed to learn on my own by getting in and doing it, not by reading a book about it.

Kacey Musgraves

#16. I have lots of passions - gardens, art, music and reading. I have eclectic taste and read a huge variety of books.

Zoe Wanamaker

#17. Poetry reading is the chamber music of the actor's craft.

Robert Lacey

#18. Poetry, plays, novels, music, they are the cry of the human spirit trying to understand itself and make sense of our world.

L.M. Elliott

#19. All reading should be pleasurable! I don't like people who keep reeling out the 'books are so important' line. First and foremost, reading is about entertainment, the same as movies, video games and music.

Darren Shan

#20. The Bible does say, "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations." Preaching, music, the reading of the Word-these things are fine-but they must never override prayer as the defining mark of God's dwelling.

Jim Cymbala

#21. We do treat books surprisingly lightly in contemporary culture. We'd never expect to understand a piece of music on one listen, but we tend to believe we've read a book after reading it just once.

Ali Smith

#22. Film music should have the same relationship to the film drama that somebody's piano playing in my living room has to the book I am reading.

Igor Stravinsky

#23. I have made a similar suggestion for poetry: that one should approach it as pure sonority, reading and rereading it as a sort of music, and should not introduce meanings or intentions into the diction before clearly grasping the system of sounds that every poem must offer on pain of nonexistence.

Paul Valery

#24. If you have feelings about reading, you feel the rhythm of prose or of a poem like music. It awakens something in your soul and then of course you study, read, you grow up and you begin to understand the message and that is the first step towards understanding life.

Maria Kodama

#25. My personal hobbies are reading, listening to music, and silence.

Edith Sitwell

#26. There were two immediate results of my forced loneliness: I began to find company in books, and greater pleasure in music.

James Weldon Johnson

#27. Reading is more of a left-brain process, and listening to music is a right-brain function.

Maynard James Keenan

#28. I don't really listen to music when I work. I really have to focus on one thing at a time. I like a lot of quiet and peace when I'm working or when I'm thinking or when I'm reading.

Shahzia Sikander

#29. I wasn't that bothered with school; I was too mad into horses. But I liked reading and was good enough at English and always liked music.

Kate Thompson

#30. People should train their brain by watching films, by listening music, by playing games, by reading quotes. If people do this, I can said from this a big percent from here you can become clever.

Deyth Banger

#31. I have to say that movies have as much impact on me as music. And that I learned as much about narrative from movies as I did from reading novels, how to arrange stories, how to juxtapose things.

Dana Spiotta

#32. Meditation is the one thing I do every day - meditate, pray. I do reading in the morning and try to center myself. I play music every day because that is very centering.

Mason Jennings

#33. Sexual activity is driven by the same aims and motives as reading poetry or listening to music: to escape the limitations imposed by the need for particularity in the consciousness.

Colin Wilson

#34. It was a great mistake to have come. He should have stayed at home and read his book, thought Peter Walsh; should have gone to a music hall; he should have stayed at home, for he knew no one.

Virginia Woolf

#35. But I also think that once you've found stuff that works, stop reading forums, stop reading reviews and just get out there and play.

Guthrie Govan

#36. I adore watching movies; movie marathons are my favorite pastime. I can watch up to five movies back to back. I also love music and like reading whenever I get the time.

Priyanka Chopra

#37. What music is to the spirit, reading is to the mind

Steven Roger Fischer

#38. She could give herself up to the written word as naturally as a good dancer to music or a fine swimmer to water. The only difficulty was that after finishing the last sentence she was left with a feeling at once hollow and uncomfortably full. Exactly like indigestion.

Jean Rhys

#39. Milton almost requires a solemn service of music to be played before you enter upon him. But he brings his music, to which who listen had need bring docile thoughts and purged ears.

Charles Lamb

#40. Surround yourself with music. Just be sure to turn the radio on.

Lisa M. Cronkhite

#41. Take my television. Take my computer. Take my cellphone. Take my music. But don't ever touch my books.

Kristen Darling

#42. You may be sitting in a room reading this book. Imagine one note struck upon the piano. Immediately that one note is enough to change the atmosphere of the room - proving that the sound element in music is a powerful and mysterious agent, which it would be foolish to deride or belittle.

Aaron Copland

#43. The reading of the song is vital. The written word is first always ... first. Not belittling the music, but it really is a backdrop. To convey the meaning of a song you need to look at the lyric and understand it.

Frank Sinatra

#44. Learning music by reading about it is like making love by mail.

Luciano Pavarotti

#45. I once wrote on my MySpace profile that music is never authentic. It was a reaction to constantly reading the word 'authentic' in connection with bands. But what does that mean? A baby crying after being pushed out of its mother's womb, now that's what I'd call authentic.

Sophie Hunger

#46. I've been changed watching films or reading books or hearing music, and that helps you to live your life.

Juliette Binoche

#47. It's amazing how, over the course of one's life, you collect so much music you don't like, so many movies you don't watch and so many books you have no intention of reading. If only regret stopped with the trivial things such as these.

Ellie Rose McKee

#48. I'm definitely influenced by lots of different things - from music, from reading, from I don't know ... I have a lot of different sources of inspiration that I tap into when I need to get something done.

Marko Djurdjevic

#49. On reading the first part of Anthony Powell's four-part masterpiece, 'A Dance to the Music of Time,' I was struck by one of the characters - an irritating peripheral character- who keeps showing up in the main protagonist's life.

Rebecca Pidgeon

#50. When you love something like reading - or drawing or music or nature - it surrounds you with a sense of connection to something great.

Anne Lamott

#51. That by listening to some music, by reading some books, by looking at paintings, and most important by hanging out with one another - by collaborating with one another and creating your own network - you can achieve something that is much better than what is out there.

David Amram

#52. I grew up reading the 'Village Voice' and wanting to be one of these multidisciplinary music writers, film writers, book writers. And I lucked out getting a job at the 'Voice' right after college.

Colson Whitehead

#53. Writing is the most disembodied art, and reading and writing are largely private and solitary experiences, so music and dance have always enchanted me as arts in which the body of the performer communicates directly to the audience, welding a kind of communion writers rarely experience.

Rebecca Solnit

#54. Some writers like to work in other places like coffee shops, but I can't - I'd end up people-watching. And if I were at a bookstore, I'd be reading. Sometimes I have some music on, but usually I like it quiet.

Julie Kagawa

#55. Y'know, when I first started listening to punk rock music, I used to get my fucking ass kicked for it! I was known as a fucking freak! But now I'm amongst many many many freaks here with me tonight!
- Billie Joe Armstrong,Stay The Night, Reading Festival 2013

Green Day

#56. I have built a city from the books I've read. A good book sings a a timeless music that is heard in the choir lofts, and balconies, and theaters that thrived within that secret city inside me.

Pat Conroy

#57. I also able to graciously survive the PhD from the grace, which comes from prayer, bible reading, extensive story reading, fasting, fellowship, listen to music, daily dance and sacred writing.

Lailah Gifty Akita

#58. Rest, nature, books, music ... such is my idea of happiness.

Leo Tolstoy

#59. A person can do a lot of reading and research as I have done. I went to Spain and spent a whole summer there with my family, immersing myself in the culture. But all that isn't really necessary to experience the music.

Maya Beiser

#60. It's what the Pixies always said about music - they were writing songs and just trying not to be boring. That was their main motivation and it worked for them. I remember reading that and thinking that was the way to do it.

Jonny Greenwood

#61. I think people probably lie about not reading their own reviews. I don't think that's true - I've been to a lot of music festivals and hung out backstage, especially in the past couple of years, and I see all these bands reading about themselves in newspapers. So I don't think that's true.

Lily Allen

#62. My memory of my household is of one immersed in books and music. I have a very intimate relationship with Bengali literature, particularly Tagore, and my interest besides reading then was music.

Siddhartha Mukherjee

#63. Reading words puts them in your mind. You never forget. Even when you don't get a chance to dwell on the music, you can hear it in your head.

Carolyn Davidson

#64. I have dyslexia, and I never did learn to read music, and I even had a problem in reading because everything was turned upside down, so I just had to draw from the lyrics and the voice that I would hear in my mind.

Andrae Crouch

#65. The implications are clear: Facebook wants to build an Internet where watching films, listening to music, reading books and even browsing is done not just openly but socially and collaboratively.

Evgeny Morozov

#66. My horizon on humanity is enlarged by reading the writers of poems, seeing a painting, listening to some music, some opera, which has nothing at all to do with a volatile human condition or struggle or whatever. It enriches me as a human being.

Wole Soyinka

#67. You reading this have undoubtedly met yours (or will); I met mine, and I'm sure he'll be back. He's got my address. He's a mean guy, a Bad Lieutenant, the sworn enemy of goofery, fuckery, pride, ambition, loud music, and all things nineteen. But

Stephen King

#68. We set up a beta site, a test site, with movie, music and book reviews. If you're reading them and you want to buy a book or a ticket for a movie that's reviewed on the site, you can do that without leaving our site.

Jay Chiat

#69. If a poem is written well, it was written with the poet's voice and for a voice. Reading a poem silently instead of saying a poem is like the difference between staring at sheet music and actually humming or playing the music on an instrument.

Robert Pinsky

#70. A panoramic vision of Bob Dylan, his music, his shifting place in American culture, from multiple angles. In fact, reading Sean Wilentz's Bob Dylan in America is as thrilling and surprising as listening to a great Dylan song.

Martin Scorsese

#71. My hobbies are reading, writing, listening to music and dancing.

Lailah Gifty Akita

#72. If I had to give up reading or give up listening to music, I suspect I'd stick with the music.

Charles Frazier

#73. Start each day with thanksgiving, prayer, reading of the Scriptures, listening to music while engage in exercise; you will be motivated for the entire day.

Lailah Gifty Akita

#74. [When] he's here, he's always reading. He says books stop time. I myself think he's crazy ... Don't tell anyone, but when he reads something that he likes he gets real happy, turns on the music, and dances by himself, or with a broom sometimes.

Mark Helprin

#75. I did a 20-minute selection of scenes from the play 'Spring Awakening' in college, well before the musical came around, so when the musical was becoming a hot thing, and I was reading interviews with Duncan Sheik about how he came to do the music, I think it's interesting.

Allison Tolman

#76. Reading is the strangest art. Your eye takes a shape, turns it into music, then story, then spirit, so a curl of ink laid long ago by a sliver of reed can become, a thousand years later, your own breath.

Keith Miller

#77. To read a poem
Is to see light where there is darkness
Is to hear silence where there is noise
Is to dance where there is no music
Is to sing where the only instrument is words
And the stirring, impassioned pauses

A.A. Patawaran

#78. My notion about any artist is that we honor him best by reading him, by playing his music, by seeing his plays or by looking at his pictures. We don't need to fall all over ourselves with adjectives and epithets. Let's play him more.

Jacques Barzun

#79. I'm not only a songwriter but I'm a massive music fan and I love going to shows. It's different than reading a book.

Craig Finn

#80. What if instead of reading, you wrote? Instead of watching TV, you made videos? Instead of listening to music, you learned how to play guitar?

Paul Jarvis

#81. Reading snow is like listening to music. To describe what you've read is like explaining music in writing.

Peter Hoeg

#82. I enjoy reading about the lives of musicians, and find many similarities in their ideas of preparation and their utter devotion to this great, eternal language: music.

Jessye Norman

#83. I'm not really one for reading books. I have a very poor attention span. I'd rather listen to music, play games or watch films on my iPad.

Olly Murs

#84. I remember that story. You have read it four times." Samson shrugged. "Why should I stop with the first reading? Nobody says, 'That was a fine piece of music. I'll never listen to that again." But some people treat books that way. Not I!

Karen A. Wyle

#85. My free time at home is usually spent emailing, listening to music, reading and talking on the phone. I wish I was on the phone less, but I have been fortunate to stay in touch with so many incredible friends.

Steve Nash

#86. Most of these men's lives were so tortured that I enjoyed reading about them, thinking, well, I am in hell too and I can't even write music.

Charles Bukowski

#87. There was never a mention, never a declaration or a decision. But the long hours of talking stopped. No more reading aloud, or music, or films. And after that there was simple physical affection, the two walking arm in arm, or Maharet at her reading with Mekare sitting motionless on a bench nearby.

Anne Rice

#88. You can't learn to play soccer by reading the rulebook, you can't learn to play the piano by studying sheets of music, and you can't learn to cook by reading recipes.

Tina Seelig

#89. Whether in music or in fiction, the most basic thing is rhythm. Your style needs to have good, natural, steady rhythm, or people won't keep reading your work.

Haruki Murakami

#90. Most people would fiercely resist the idea that they need any instruction in how to listen to music. Because we can hear, we think we can listen. But just because we can see, we don't assume we can read. Reading

Julian Johnson

#91. But once you put all the stupid things I do aside, I'm really not all that interesting. I like reading, staying home, going on walks with my dog - it's like I'm already a retiree. Who wants to hear about that? Especially when I would have to scream it over the music to which no one dances.

Jim Butcher

#92. By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet.

Thomas Merton

#93. Listening's reading if you close your eyes. Music's a wood you walk through.

David Mitchell

#94. I get caught up in my bubble of reading, writing, or music.

Antonio Banderas

#95. We love to learn because learning feels good. It both satisfies and stimulates curiosity. Reading a good book, having a meaningful conversation, listening to great music - just doing these things make us happy. They have no extrinsic purpose. To give them one takes away from their joy.

Zander Sherman

#96. The reason I moved to Nashville was because I was reading biographies of a lot of my country music heroes, and I thought it would be better to actually go where the history was, as opposed to just reading about it.

Lindi Ortega

#97. When I read a daring book or listen to rebellious music, I feel like I've found what freedom really means.

Carla H. Krueger

#98. I always have music on unless I'm reading aloud, which I always do before I hand anything in. It's the only way to know if a sentence really works, without clunks or cul-de-sac clauses.

Anna Quindlen

#99. I can spend the day without writing or reading, but I can't spend a day without listening to music. I listen to music on a Walkman; it's from the 19th century, I know.

Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt

#100. Over the past decade, American youth are spending much more time watching TV, listening to music, using a computer and playing video games
a total of 7 1/2 hours every day in front of a screen. The only thing they are spending less time on is reading!

Thomas L. Friedman