Music Quotes

"It's hard to decide how to match words to music. It's not like it's twice the work. It's always difficult for me to explain to the composer what I'm looking for. I'm not a professional; I lack even basic knowledge about writing music"

Ayumi Hamasaki, Musician

"Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn't music"

William Stafford, Poet

"Music had been my first love among the arts, and I was fascinated by it, as I still am"

Harry Mathews, Author

"The music industry's actions at the time of 9/11 and since have been actions driven by patriotism in most instances, and greed and stupidity to a lesser degree. Sounds like real life doesn't it?"

Ronnie James Dio, Musician

"Music, Rock and Roll music especially, is such a generational thing. Each generation must have their own music, I had my own in my generation, you have yours, everyone I know has their own generation"

Ronnie James Dio, Musician

"It's easy to get next to music theory, especially between your peers and music classes and so forth. You just pay attention. I had a good ear, so I realized that printed music was just about reminding you what to play"

Quincy Jones, Musician

"When I started out, I preferred to watch my films without music, as its presence tends to mask the underlying pace of the film. I felt I could feel the rhythm of the film better without music to influence me"

Paul Hirsch, Politician

"Social topics may hit too close to home for people, but then again, if you pull a heartstring, then that's what country music is. It's not just songs about getting drunk and leaving your girl"

Kenny Chesney, Musician

"I come from a background of experimental music which mingled real sounds together with musical sounds"

Ennio Morricone, Composer

"The stage is close to being in the middle of the hall, so that the performers are surrounded by the listeners. I feel that we are all experiencing the music together"

Emanuel Ax, Musician

"To me, I'm for a band whose forefront is the music"

Phil Anselmo, Musician

"I can easily say I've done everything I've wanted in music"

Phil Anselmo, Musician

"Suckle was the first West Indian DJ and he had this fantastic source of music"

Georgie Fame, Musician

"I wondered how people would take me being a country music singer. I thought about deviating from that and singing other things. But... it doesn't really make sense for me to try to be something that I'm not"

Carrie Underwood, Musician

"Listening is more important than anything else because that's what music is. Somebody is playing something and you're receiving it. It is sending and receiving"

Carla Bley, Musician

"A composer knows that music is written by human beings for human beings and that music is a continuation of life, not something separated from it"

Hanns Eisler, Composer

"Real music is not for wealth, not for honours or even the joys of the mind... but as a path for realisation and salvation"

Ali Akbar Khan, Musician

"Men have died for this music. You can't get more serious than that"

Dizzy Gillespie, Musician

"I went to the London Academy Of Music and Dramatic Art and returned to New York where I started my career"

David Naughton, Actor

"Whenever you play dance music, it serves a function. It becomes a utility; you have to worry about the tempos and what you're going to play for people. But when you're playing for listening, you're free"

Stan Kenton, Musician

"That was probably the stamp that went into my mind, because I worked in television for many years, doing that kind of music, so that really was my strong forte"

Skitch Henderson, Musician

"What makes my approach special is that I do different things. I do jazz, blues, country music and so forth. I do them all, like a good utility man"

Ray Charles, Musician

"I think all music is a gift from God"

Pharrell Williams, Musician

"It is proportion that beautifies everything, the whole universe consists of it, and music is measured by it"

Orlando Gibbons, Composer

"We made music that wouldn't be in synch"

Wayne Coyne, Musician

"It's all about theme and development anyway. That's what music is about"

John Otto, Musician

"I've done some music for films and I really enjoy doing it"

Ikue Mori, Musician

"Because it's dance music, you can't really have a lot of changing in there. It's really not for me because there's too much repetition. I like more diversity"

Ikue Mori, Musician

"Elvis' early music has drama because as he sang he was escaping limits"

Greil Marcus, Author

"What I like best about music is when time goes away"

Bob Weir, Musician

"We wanted to establish a new fan base over here. And second, we wanted to challenge ourselves. We wanted to bring what is ostensibly new music to fresh ears and see what lights them up"

Bob Weir, Musician

"I was always into music. I think everyone is when they're a teenager, as a way to drown out the world"

Penelope Spheeris, Director

"Music is a form of prayer"

Toru Takemitsu, Composer

"I'm a fan of Jerome Kern and Gershwin. That's my kind of music"

Shirley Jones, Actress

"My secret ambition was always to provide music for animation films: something with an Indian theme, either a fairy tale or mythological tale or on the Krishna theme. I still have a very deep desire, but these sorts of chances don't always come"

Ravi Shankar, Musician

"It's the music that brings us together"

John Oates, Musician

"Music I do just for me"

Jeremy Renner, Actor

"Though everything else may appear shallow and repulsive, even the smallest task in music is so absorbing, and carries us so far away from town, country, earth, and all worldly things, that it is truly a blessed gift of God"

Felix Mendelssohn, Composer

"My father being in the movie business, I thought being an actor would be great. But when I started singing to people in coffeehouses, you know, singing folk music and then, later, singing songs that I started to write myself, I felt more than an affinity for it"

David Crosby, Musician

"I've always loved music, very simply, as a vehicle to express myself and that hasn't changed"

David Coverdale, Musician

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