Riff Off Quotes

#1. Cliches work by appealing to the collective unconscious. They are the Pachbel's Canon in D of writing, something familiar the talented can riff off to create a distinct work.

Thomm Quackenbush

#2. Well, I think writing is basically about time and rhythm. Like with jazz. You have your basic melody and then you just riff off of it. And the riffs are about timing.

Kathy Acker

#3. I always have my setlist planned out, but the best moments are when the energy of the crowd just gets your mind working and you are able to come up with new tags for jokes and just riff off things in the room.

Aziz Ansari

#4. The first song that made me interested in music was 'Oh, Pretty Woman' by Roy Orbison. It was the guitar intro, that riff, that I really liked and made me listen in a different way.

Geddy Lee

#5. I'd cuddle with you, but I don't want to sweat off my riff and solo."
She laughed. "That must be the first time that excuse has ever been used to avoid after-sex cuddling.

Olivia Cunning

#6. The Thieves of Manhattan is a sly and cutting riff on the book-publishing world that is quite funny unless you happen to be an author, in which case the novel will make you consider a more sensible profession-like being a rodeo clown, for example, or a crab-fisherman in the Bering Sea.

Carl Hiaasen

#7. Once upon a time ... " "In the beginning was ... " That's the way it always starts off. Every story, gospel, history, chronicle, myth, legend, folktale, or old wives' tale blues riff begins with "Woke up this mornin' ...

Steven Tyler

#8. People got so many questions. Why you got so many questions when my whole life is on the Internet? If you wanna know about me, you can go on the Internet and look at my YouTube videos. I used to drop one every day. You can go on my YouTube channel, go on my Vine, my Twitter.

Riff Raff

#9. As a writer, I find it very satisfying when a lyric suddenly ties together more neatly than you expected it to. But for the listener, hearing a good lyric is not generally as exciting as hearing a great beat or a great riff or a great melody or even a distinctive singing voice for the first time.

Adam Schlesinger

#10. I am never happy with what I do, so I try not to watch stuff that is filmed with me in it because I am always like, 'Oh, I could have done that a little bit better,' or, 'I could have done that differently - that riff could have been a little better.'

Josh Young

#11. A lot of people aren't familiar with me, but it's not my job to make people familiar with me. There's millions of artists out there. I'm just gonna do what I wanna do, and if people feel the stuff that I'm doing, then great.

Riff Raff

#12. No one in the world can beat Ella Fitzgerald as a riff singer.

Ethel Waters

#13. The truth is, laughter always sounds more perfect than weeping. Laughter flows in a violent riff and is effortlessly melodic. Weeping is often fought, choked, half strangled, or surrendered to with humiliation.

Anne Rice

#14. Cause everything I've done - there's no smokescreen. Everything the people have seen me do, they've literally seen me start from the bottom and rise to the top. So there is no falling down once you've done the stuff I've done.

Riff Raff

#15. Woodrell's storytelling is as melodic, jangly and energetic as a good banjo riff ... Sammy Barlach's story is a tragedy, but the telling of it is a pleasure.

Valerie Sayers

#16. What do you see when you touch me now?" Riff asked, his gaze searching Zed's face. Once again, Zed sensed that electric zing of sexual awareness. Riff Definitely knew what he wanted, "Enough heat to set me on fire. Hunger that matches my own.

Marguerite Labbe

#17. I haven't had a big-ass feature, somebody put me on a label, cash money didn't come scoop me up. I've literally put myself into millionaire position. All the stuff I've done and I'm doing has nothing to do with nobody. I don't owe anybody anything. No wife, no kids - I don't owe nobody nothin'.

Riff Raff

#18. I'm dying to fool around with the distance between Selina Kyle and Catwoman. And, you know, the whole double identity thing is endlessly fascinating. I mean, you can always find another riff for it.

Ann Nocenti

#19. Whenever I work on the computer, I have folders and you know how you always give everything working titles, if you have a riff or a motif or a chord progression or a lyric written on a page, it's just a line or a word or something so I always give everything a working title when I'm making a folder.

Page Hamilton

#20. Sometimes one of us will have a riff or a bass line from home but it really gels when we come together. We really have a strong special chemistry that we take advantage of when we get together.

Chad Smith

#21. Songs are out there - they're waiting to be grabbed. I start with a phrase, musical and lyrical, words like 'I don't think so' and a nice riff. It rolls from there.

Ronnie Wood

#22. When you really do find a new idea or you're in and it's all working, that's the gift. It's like a musician when they hit a riff, that's when you're like all right, it's mellow. You back off and just ride it.

Robin Williams

#23. 'Back In The Saddle' - I never realised what a good riff that was, or at least how much it satisfied me. And when we play it live, it comes across much better than I ever expected it to.

Joe Perry

#24. The idea of a hypnotic riff as the prime mover of a piece of music has been around for a long time, whether you're talking about the Delta blues or music from Middle Eastern and African cultures.

Jimmy Page

#25. I'm always in Malibu, and I'm a big fan of surfing and stuff. I love the beach. Someday I will live on the beach.

Riff Raff

#26. Of all the things I've done, the first 'Strongman' story was one of the easiest things to write. It was almost fully formed from the get-go. It's almost a 'Dark Knight Returns' riff, except you have a battle-worn Mexican wrestler instead of Batman.

Charles Soule

#27. The song could start with a riff that I base the song around. Or a chord progression or a melody I have, I just write a story about it. Lyric-wise, it's cool to have someone else's input too.

Orianthi

#28. Where Snah [Hans Magnus Ryan] is a melody and texture man, I am more of a riff, rhythm and concept guy. I am much better than him in certain fields, and he surely wipes the floor with me in others, and we both know it's like that.

Bent Saether

#29. Why would I talk about the past when I got a bright future? What kind of money is the past gonna make me? Everyone wants to know information. Now, if you wanna know information, if you want history, you're gonna read a history book. The past ain't gonna make you no cash.

Riff Raff

#30. Once you understand that there's a spiritual math, add soul to the science and subtract the riff-raff. 24-7-365, cause 9 to 5 ain't alive.

Kool Moe Dee

#31. I'm still trying to write. I wrote a play a few years ago, so I'm trying to start writing again. The play was called The Commons Of Pensacola. It was at MTC [Manhattan Theatre Club] with Sarah Jessica Parker and Blythe Danner. It was kind of like a riff on Ruth Madoff.

Amanda Peet

#32. When you have a clear idea of what your character is trying to accomplish, it makes it a lot easier to riff on things.

Glenn Howerton

#33. There are a lot of people who are successful and have a lot of money, but you can almost see their limitations because they have these walls around them. Harmony Korine exceeds those walls, and those are the types of people who go on to exceed people's expectations.

Riff Raff

#34. In OK Computer, the guitar was already moving towards a tone generator as well as a riff generator.

Colin Greenwood

#35. The worst thing to happen at the Oscars would be if nothing happened. You want something unscripted, something to riff on, something kinda out there.

Seth MacFarlane

#36. The silence was suddenly too much. He hit the CD button on the car's radio. Brian Jones's sitar riff opened for Charlie Watts tribal-like drumbeat thundering from the speakers. Keith Richards' jangly guitar joined in, followed by Mick singing about seeing a red door that he wanted to paint black.

Glenn Rolfe

#37. My tattoos remind me of all that I have been through.

Riff Raff

#38. I want to do some different kind of songs, but say I want to do riffs, but I don't come up with any riffs that I really think are great. Then I can't do a riff album. I'm more of a song, melody person.

Stephen Malkmus

#39. I didn't even write the lyrics down. I got in the booth, I put down a little guitar riff and the idea I had was it was going to be really simple, I just want it to be all about the lyrics and I just literally sang the lyrics.

Benji Madden

#40. A guitar riff played on a piano doesn't come close to the purity of it being played on a guitar but I faked it enough to get by.

Barry Mann

#41. The main riff for 'SandMan' was just something I wrote one night.

Kirk Hammett

#42. I was just obsessed with soul singers who had these big powerful voices. I used to listen to Aretha, Whitney, Mariah and try and imitate them, note for note and riff for riff.

Jess Glynne