Quotes from David Bowie

A song has to take on character, shape, body and influence people to an extent that they use it for their own devices. It must affect them not just as a song, but as a lifestyle.

I'm wallowing in the whole idea of just being a guy out there with a band, with songs. It's a real enjoyment.

I've always tended to write songs prolifically.

I think Mustique is Duchampian - it will always provide an endless source of delight.

GYBE are among my, erm, two favourite Montreal bands, Arcade Fire being the other.

However, there's no theme or concept behind Heathen, just a number of songs but somehow there is a thread that runs through it that is quite as strong as any of my thematic type albums.

Now I realize that from '72 through to about '76, I was the ultimate rock star. I couldn't have been more rock star.

I'm not a prophet or a stone aged man, just a mortal with potential of a superman. I'm living on.

Sits like a man, but smiles like a reptile.

Fame can take interesting men and thrust mediocrity upon them.

Hear this Robert Zimmerman, I wrote a song for you, about a strange young man called Dylan with a voice like sand and glue.

The name Zahra was to have been lman's own name at birth, but a senior member of the family changed it to lman at the last minute.

On the other hand, what I like my music to do to me is awaken the ghosts inside of me. Not the demons, you understand, but the ghosts.

Since the departure of good old-fashioned entertainers the re-emergence of somebody who wants to be an entertainer has unfortunately become a synonym for camp. I don't think I'm camper than any other person who felt at home on stage, and felt more at home on stage than he did offstage.

I knew that I was 'interesting' at 18 because I was aware that I could get away with doing things on stage.

I don't crave applause. I'm not one of those guys who comes alive on stage. I'm much more alive at home, I think.

From my standpoint, being an artist, I want to see what the new construction is between artist and audience.

Hey man, I gotta straighten my face. This mellow thighed chick just put my spine out of place.

All Montreal bands have around nine members, I believe.

I'm very good at what I do, and I don't turn my hand to something unless I'm very good at it, frankly.

I never really felt like a rock singer or a rock star or whatever.

I'm responsible for starting a whole new school of pretension.

I was very into making the Big Artistic Statement - it had to be innovative; it had to be cutting edge. I was desperately keen on being original.

I thought that I wrote songs and wrote music, and that was sort of what I thought I was best at doing. And because nobody else was ever doing my songs, I felt - you know, I had to go out and do them.