Quotes from Tom Petty

Time to move on, time to get going. What lies ahead I have no way of knowing. But under my feet, baby, grass is growing.

At twilight time the smog makes a rainbow.

If you stretch your imagination, I'll tell you all a tale, about a time when everything wasn't up for sale.

I like to be an optimist, but I like to be a realist, too.

You get into your late fifties, people start falling like flies all around you. I don't take life for granted any more. I'm really glad to be here.

I don't eat fish and chicken and all that. But I will have some eggs. So I'm not technically a vegan. But I eat pretty sensibly, and before a tour, I will usually work out a lot. I'll get a trainer, or I have a guy I've known a long time.

Last dance with Mary Jane One more time to kill the pain I feel summer creepin' in and I'm Tired of this town again

I remember things being more clearer, at one time things were more real.

I don't know, my music has always just come from where the wind blew me. Like where I'm at during a particular moment in time.

I've been more and more into production lately, and I really, really love that. I love recording.

It's kind of a lonely work, because you just have to keep your pole in the water. I always had a little routine of going into whatever room I was using at the time to write in and just staying in there till I felt like I got a bite.

Yeah, the world would swing if I were king. Can I help it if I still dream time to time?

I'm actually better on the guitar than when I started, I think, because I've had so much time with it and I still practice and I love to do it and I love to sing.

You belong among the wildflowers You belong in a boat out at sea You belong with your love on your arm You belong somewhere you feel free

Any time you're making a living at what you love to do, you're blessed.

When my record company rejected 'Full Moon Fever', I was hurt so bad. I was pretty far along in my career at that point. I'd never had anything rejected; I'd never really even had a comment. So when that happened, it was really just a board to the forehead. But then, finally, I picked myself up.

Most things I worry about never happen anyway.

How about a cheer for all those bad girls! And all those boys that play that rock 'n' roll! They love it like you love Jesus.

If you listen long enough you can hear my skin grow tough love is painful to the touch must be made of stronger stuff.

Rock n' roll was one thing, and then they chopped off the 'roll' and called it 'rock,' which became a sort of umbrella term for anything with a guitar in it. Like hair bands. How could we possibly believe that? It's just gotten downright silly, to the point where now it's sort of become like professional wrestling.

The first time I tried to write was when I was 14, after I got an electric guitar. I put a song together, and it wasn't that bad! The writing came natural to me.

I had the radio on, I was driving. Trees flew by, me and Del were singing, Little Runaway, I was flying.

There used to be this real sense of community integrity in rock. It has really eroded. Everyone seems to be on their own now.

'Southern Accents,' I think that's one of my best, really. That would have been 1984, and I wrote that on the piano in the studio at home. I had a studio, and I just happened to be down there in the middle of the night. It was quite late, probably early morning, and I just started to play, and a song just started to appear.