Quotes from Tom Petty

I love history, doesn't matter what era, I'm fascinated.

No matter how long you play the guitar, there's always something else to learn.

Somewhere, somehow, somebody must have kicked you around some. Tell me, why you want to lay there, revel in your abandon?

You believe what you want to believe. You see, you don't have to live like a refugee.

TV does not care about you or what happens to you. It's downright bad for your health now, and that's not a far-out concept. I think watching the TV news is bad for you. It is bad for your physical health and your mental health.

I would never put my songs in a commercial.

It's hard for me... If I don't have a project going, I don't feel like I'm connected to anything. I don't even think it's that healthy for me. I like to get out of bed and have a purpose.

As time goes by, you seem to weed out the things that were making your life hard.

When I decided to be a musician I reckoned that that was going to be the way of less profit, less money. I was sort of giving up the idea of making a lot of money. It was what I loved to do. I would have done it anyway. If I'd had to work at Taco Bell I'd have still been out at night trying to play music.

We don't really make bad records, though some people might like some more than others. And we have never really done a bad show. So I think in a way maybe we've been taken for granted.

I got my own way of praying.

Lord, please watch over all these lost children born to chase the hurricane.

I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings. Coming down is the hardest thing.

Sometimes life, will get you down, break your heart, steal your crown.

I think television's become a downright dangerous thing. It has no moral barometer whatsoever. If you want to talk about something that is all about money, just watch the television.

Sometimes, giving up your privacy is a little like going to the dentist and we have let him have access that no one's ever had.

I don't think it's a good attitude in your life to feel that you have to be rich to have self-esteem.

I'm barely prolific and incredibly lazy.

I tend to write on an acoustic guitar or the piano. I have kind of a rule: if I can't sit down and play this and get the song over, I don't take it to the band, because most any good song, you can sit down and deliver it with a piano or a guitar.

It's very easy to be cynical about the hall of fame. But on the other hand, it's really a beautiful thing for someone like me. I dedicated my entire life to this music.

I'm not interested in the TV much. I quit watching the news a couple years ago and my outlook on life has gotten a whole lot better.

You spend your life dreaming, running 'round in a trance, You hang out forever and still miss the dance, And if you get lucky, you might find someone, To help you get over the pain that will come.

I think if I'd quit years ago, I'd never have known what I was capable of doing.

When I was a kid, we didn't have any blues stations. I never heard Howlin' Wolf or Muddy Waters or any of those people until the Stones had come along, and I took it upon myself to find out who these people were that they were covering.