1. It amazes me sometimes that even intelligent people will analyze a situation or make a judgement after only recognizing the standard or traditional structure of a piece. 2. I'm an instant star. Just add water and stir.
3. Frankly, I mean, sometimes the interpretations I've seen on some of the songs that I've written are a lot more interesting than the input that I put in.
4. I'm always amazed that peole take what I say seriously. I don't even take what I am seriously.
5. The truth is of course is that there is no journey. We are arriving and departing all at the same time.
7. I always had a repulsive need to be something more than human.
8. Heathenism is a state of mind. You can take it that I'm referring to one who does not see his world. He has no mental light. He destroys almost unwittingly. He cannot feel any Gods presence in his life. He is the 21st century man.
9. I believe that I often bring out the best in somebody's talents.
10. I had to resign myself, many years ago, that I'm not too articulate when it comes to explaining how I feel about things. But my music does it for me, it really does.
11. On the other hand, what I like my music to do to me is awaken the ghosts inside of me. Not the demons, you understand, but the ghosts.
12. I think Mick Jagger would be astounded and amazed if he realized that to many people he is not a sex symbol, but a mother image.
14. But I'm pretty good with collaborative thinking. I work well with other people.
15. However, there's no theme or concept behind Heathen, just a number of songs but somehow there is a thread that runs through it that is quite as strong as any of my thematic type albums.
16. I think it all comes back to being very selfish as an artist. I mean, I really do just write and record what interests me and I do approach the stage shows in much the same way.
17. I've never responded well to entrenched negative thinking.
18. I'm not a prophet or a stone aged man, just a mortal with potential of a superman. I'm living on.
19. And I saw the sax line-up that he had behind him and I thought, I'm going to learn the saxophone. When I grow up, I'm going to play in his band. So I sort of persuaded my dad to get me a kind of a plastic saxophone on the hire purchase plan.
21. I felt I really wanted to back off from music completely and just work within the visual arts in some way. I started painting quite passionately at that time.
22. I never could get over the fact that The Pixies formed, worked and separated without America taking them to its heart or even recognizing their existence for the most part.
23. I wanted to prove the sustaining power of music.
24. I went through all the musicians in my life who I admire as bright, intelligent, virtuosic players.
25. I'm just an individual who doesn't feel that I need to have somebody qualify my work in any particular way. I'm working for me.
26. Nearly all the synth work on Heathen is mine and some of the piano.
27. Pixies and Sonic Youth were so important to the eighties.
29. Strangely, some songs you really don't want to write.
30. There, in the chords and melodies, is everything I want to say. The words just jolly it along. It's always been my way of expressing what for me is inexpressible by any other means.
31. To not be modest about it, you'll find that with only a couple of exceptions, most of the musicians that I've worked with have done their best work by far with me.
32. Tony Visconti and I had been wanting to work together again for a few years now. Both of us had fairly large commitments and for a long time we couldn't see a space in which we could get anything together.
33. When I heard Little Richard, I mean, it just set my world on fire.
34. I rate Morrissey as one of the best lyricists in Britain. For me, he's up there with Bryan Ferry.
36. I'm looking for backing for an unauthorized auto-biography that I am writing. Hopefully, this will sell in such huge numbers that I will be able to sue myself for an extraordinary amount of money and finance the film version in which I will play everybody.
37. I re-invented my image so many times that I'm in denial that I was originally an overweight Korean woman.
38. Funk, I don't think I have anything to do with funk. I've never considered myself funky.
39. Since the departure of good old-fashioned entertainers the re-emergence of somebody who wants to be an entertainer has unfortunately become a synonym for camp. I don't think I'm camper than any other person who felt at home on stage, and felt more at home on stage than he did offstage.
41. I wish myself to be a prop, if anything, for my songs. I want to be the vehicle for my songs. I would like to colour the material with as much visual expression as is necessary for that song.
42. Confront a corpse at least once. The absolute absence of life is the most disturbing and challenging confrontation you will ever have.
43. When I'm stuck for a closing to a lyric, I will drag out my last resort: overwhelming illogic.
44. Fame can take interesting men and thrust mediocrity upon them.
45. I'm in awe of the universe, but I don't necessarily believe there's an intelligence or agent behind it. I do have a passion for the visual in religious rituals, though, even though they may be completely empty and bereft of substance. The incense is powerful and provocative, whether Buddhist or Catholic.
46. Questioning my spiritual life has always been germane to what I was writing. Always. It's because I'm not quite an atheist and it worries me. There's that little bit that holds on: "Well, I'm almost an atheist. Give me a couple of months."
48. I'm very at ease, and I like it. I never thought I would be such a family-oriented guy; I didn't think that was part of my makeup. But somebody said that as you get older you become the person you always should have been, and I feel that's happening to me. I'm rather surprised at who I am, because I'm actually like my dad!
49. That's the shock: All cliches are true. The years really do speed by. Life really is as short as they tell you it is. And there really is a God - so do I buy that one? If all the other cliches are true... Hell, don't pose me that one.
51. Radio in England is nonexistent. It's very bad English use of a media system, typically English use.
52. There's a good television program called "Disco 2." It's quite good but again it's average, average. It's all on a down play. You know we've got this thing in England to be hip is to speak very down - like John Peel. And that just about sums up England. They don't realize when they talk like that, then that is what they represent - absolutely.
54. I've made over 25 studio albums, and I think probably I've made two real stinkers in my time, and some not-bad albums, and some really good albums. I'm proud of what I've done. In fact it's been a good ride.
55. I suppose for me as an artist it wasn't always just about expressing my work; I really wanted, more than anything else, to contribute in some way to the culture that I was living in. It just seemed like a challenge to move it a little bit towards the way I thought it might be interesting to go.
57. The humanists' replacement for religion: work really hard and somehow you'll either save yourself or you'll be immortal. Of course, that's a total joke, and our progress is nothing. There may be progress in technology but there's no ethical progress whatsoever.
58. The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it. I see absolutely no point in pretending that it's not going to happen. I'm fully confident that copyright, for instance, will no longer exist in 10 years.
59. Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity. So it's like, just take advantage of these last few years because none of this is ever going to happen again. You'd better be prepared for doing a lot of touring because that's really the only unique situation that's going to be left.
61. As you get older, the questions come down to about two or three. How long? And what do I do with the time I've got left?
62. I don't have stylistic loyalty. That's why people perceive me changing all the time. But there is a real continuity in my subject matter. As an artist of artifice, I do believe I have more integrity than any one of my contemporaries.
63. The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.
65. And these children that you spit on as they try to change their worlds are immune to your consultations.They're quite aware of what they're going through.
66. Turn and face the strange.
67. Speak in extremes, it'll save you time.
68. If it works, it's out of date.
69. There's a terror in knowing what the world is about.
70. Take your protein pills and put your helmet on... Check ignition and may God's love be with you...
72. No more free steps to heaven.
73. Don't let me hear you say life takes you nowhere, angel.
74. There's a taste in my mouth and it's no taste at all.
75. Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming.
76. Everywhere I looked, demons of the future (were) on the battlegrounds of one’s emotional plane.
78. Once you lose that sense of wonder at being alive, you're pretty much on the way out...
79. I'm an instant atar. Just add Ester and stir.
80. And when the clothes are strewn, don't be afraid of the room, touch the fullness of her breast, feel the love of her caress...she will be your living end.
81. You can neither win nor lose if you don't run the race.
82. Is it nice in your snowstorm- freezing your brain? Do you think that your face looks the same?
84. I wanted to create an environment where not just my fans but all music lovers could be a part of the same community.
85. I gave up smoking six months before I had the heart attack - so that was worth it, wasn't it! I started to give up when my daughter was born because I wouldn't smoke in the house with her there so I had to go outside. It's bloody cold in winter in New York, so I just quit.
86. I once asked (John) Lennon what he thought of what I do. He said "it's great, but its just rock and roll with lipstick on".
87. I don't know how many times someone has come up to me and said: "Hey, Lets dance!" I hate dancing. God, it's stupid.
89. Any list of advice I have to offer to a musician always ends with: "If it itches, go and see a doctor." (on getting an honorary degree from Boston's Berklee College of Music)
90. I know about Kylie (Kylie Minogue) and Robbie (Robbie Williams) and "Pop Idol" and stuff like that. You can't get away from that when you hit the (British) shore, so I know all about the cruise ship entertainment aspect of British pop.
91. Talking about art is like dancing about architecture.
93. You would think that a rock star being married to a supermodel would be one of the greatest things in the world. It is.
94. However, there's no theme or concept behind Heathen, just a number of songs but somehow there is a thread that runs through it that is quite as strong as any of my thematic type albums.
96. Fab. But, you know, I don't feel fifty. I feel not a day over forty-nine. It's incredible. I'm bouncy, I feel bouncy. (on being 50)
97. When Brian and I came back together this time, we found that we'd gone through very similar psychological states during the course of the '80s.
98. I went through all the musicians in my life who I admire as bright, intelligent, virtuosic players.
99. When I performed I was thinking, you all look like you should be seeing Phil Collins. Then I thought, hang on, I sound like Phil Collins. So I've changed. I'm not comfortable with the mainstream thing. (On his pop sound during the 1980s)
101. Strangely, some songs you really don't want to write.
102. Nearly all the synth work on Heathen is mine and some of the piano.
103. Asked whether he thinks he is a good actor: "I took you in, didn't I? I rest my make-up case.
104. I have nothing to say about the new album. Can I go now? (during an interview about his new album in 1999)
What do you think of David Bowie's quotes?
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