Quotes from Robbie Robertson

No one was a match for Ronnie Hawkins. Garth's parents gave their blessing, and he became a Hawk. Ronnie paid Garth his customary salary, but the clincher was that the rest of us had to pay Garth ten dollars a week for music lessons. We were thrilled that Garth was finally in the group, but in quiet moments we wondered: Did we just get scammed?

This talk of exploding spleens scared the hell out of me. I went back to the apartment and told Dominique what the doctor had said and that he had advised me not to participate in the natural childbirth. She thought it all sounded preposterous. "If anybody's going to explode, it's me if I don't have this baby soon.

Music isn't necessarily made to last, and there's always been disposable music.

There is an extraordinary collaborative spirit when you are learning and growing.

It's extraordinary that revolutions taking place around the world were sparked by communication on the Internet.

Record making is an extraordinary experience.

In Americana, the facts and the dreams seem to be all the same to me.

I remember from my earliest years people speaking, you know, in a certain kind of rhythm and telling stories and sharing experiences in a way that was different in Indian country than it was other places. And I was really struck by this and obviously very affected by it, because it's always come out in my songs.

We need to have a taste factor in our life. It isn't about what's popular; it's about what's really good.

I thought of a lot of people from the same era when I was making a lot of records that had continued making a lot of records. A lot of it didn't seem terribly inspired.

The road has taken a lot of the great ones: Hank Williams, Buddy Holly, Otis Redding, Janis, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis.

One of the greatest live recordings, I think, in the history of the world is Ray Charles in Atlanta... And they didn't even have a big mobile recording thing set up. The word on the street was they only had like two microphones, one for the band and one for him. Perfect recordings. I think it's mono.

I play guitar quite a bit, because I'm always in search of something. I don't play to jam, but because I'm fishing. I'm looking for something, that I hope you can never find. If I do find it, I'm afraid I won't have a need to do this any more.

My thirst for knowledge and experience comes from the idea that once you learned something, it was time to learn something else. I missed out on a formal educational process, so I'm making up for that.

Time is not kind to everything.

Confused by the big city blues, he didn't know who's life he's leading. Put yourself behind the wheel, see if you can get that feel.

I admire those old road dogs, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan. That's their life.

I saw Ray Charles at Massey Hall.

I think that there's always great music being made. Always has been, always will be.

Everybody grows in their own way.

Cowboys had guitars. And they sang country 'cause they lived in the country.

When I was younger, I thought I was too young to really be personal. I thought that what I was feeling and thinking might be half-baked.

The rock concert experience for people was really pretty stupid, you know, at the time. People would go to concerts not with the idea of listening at all.

Music should never be harmless.