Quotes from Steven Van Zandt

It's become uncool to play other people's songs, and that's absurd. It has got to change. It's the reason why everything's so mediocre.

The River,' to me, meant 43 songs.

Rock n' roll is a participatory sport.

In my mind, it's always easier to do a sequel than an original.

There are... certainly more innovations on 'Revolver'... but the truth of the matter is 'Sgt. Pepper' has something that was just completely different and unique at that moment.

I was 100 percent political in the '80s - the first time around, let's call it, my first life as an artist.

Life should never be boring.

Bands should never break up.

There is an established tradition of actors directing films that have a particular, personal meaning for them - Warren Beatty, Clint Eastwood, Kevin Costner, and most recently George Clooney to name a few. Remarkably, their films share an unusually high percentage of being very good.

I'm a real band guy, you know? I'm really good at certain things, and the band stuff is one of them.

'Sopranos' was a fascinating moment, just catching our whole culture by surprise, a fun ride to be on while I'm learning the craft.

I'm always surprised when a sequel is not as good or better than the first one. I never understand that. You've already set your own bar. You've already done the hard work. It should be easier to make the second one, but a lot of the times, it's not.

I didn't make that much money... Once I joined Bruce (Springsteen), I took a huge pay cut.

My lifelong friend and mentor Frank Barsalona is gone. And the music business as we knew it went with him.

I have a bigger mission than any kind of specific politics, which is trying to restore the accessibility of rock 'n' roll.

Ive always considered the government taking one out of every two dollars I earn absolute tyranny.

I need a big picture. I can't just do a collection of songs; that doesn't work for me.

I'll never understand why people somehow support pollution. It's completely irrational, and I don't get it. Somewhere along the line, they bought into this fiction that one has to choose between the environment and business, which is just a complete falsehood and absurd.

You ask people to fall in love with you. To need you. To want you. To buy your records and come see you. You have an emotional contract with people. To break up is to violate that contract.

The first rule of rock and roll is it's all about live. Then you have to learn a second craft, which is making records. It should go in that order.

For me, it all comes down to one issue: if we can get money out of political systems, the whole world will change.

Boycotts are not something to be taken lightly.

Let's not pretend we have too much of a democracy here, because we don't.

Primal Scream could be the biggest band in the world. They are fantastic when they make rock records - once every 10 years.