Quotes from Don McLean

I am what I do, and that's partly why I don't want to give up singing. But when I can't sing well, I will.

All roads lead to 'American Pie.' 'As American as apple pie' was the saying. It was some kind of a big American song that I wanted to write, which would be a conclusion for my show and bring all the songs home, which it still does. I can go anywhere I want with American music and come home to that. And it all makes sense.

When people ask what 'American Pie' is about, they're missing the point. The song isn't about the lines themselves - it's about what is between the lines. The song is about what isn't there.

In a sense, 'American Pie' was a very despairing song but it can also be seen as very hopeful.

I was around in 1970, and now I am around in 2015 ... there is no poetry and very little romance in anything anymore, so it is really like the last phase of 'American Pie.'

I have a weird sense sometimes of what's going to happen before it happens, and I kind of live by that, which is how my instincts operate, I suppose.

They don't keep their promises in the promised land, its getting mighty hard to find an honest man.

When I go on the road now, which is less than before, but still more than I'd like to, I think of myself primarily as a singer. Not a songwriter, not a celebrity, just a man who likes to sing.

Do you believe in rock 'n roll? Can music save your mortal soul?

I'm glad that my music has helped other people as it's helped me. It makes me glad that I did what I did with my life.

Something touched me deep inside The day the music died.

I saw satan laughing with delight The day the music died.

And as the players tried to take the field, the Marching Band refused to yield.

Hills of forest green where the mountains touch the sky, a dream come true, I'll live there til I die.

In the autumn of 1970 I had a job singing in the school system, playing my guitar in classrooms.

Jerusalem is old, Jerusalem is new, Jerusalem can hold Moslem, Christian, Jew.

This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you.

I was always just into my music and maybe into trying to save the world a little bit. I never really thought I'd have a hit record or anything like that. I was prepared to travel around all over the country, kind of like a Johnny Appleseed, and sing.

A long long time ago, I can still remember how that music use to make me smile.

Bye, Bye, Miss American PieDrove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dryThem good old boys were drinkin'Whiskey and RyeSingin' this'll be the day that I dieThis'll be the day that I die

I was always just into my music and maybe into trying to save the world a little bit. I never really thought I'd have a hit record or anything like that. I was prepared to travel around all over the country, kind of like a Johnny Appleseed, and sing.

And when no hope was left inside on that starry, starry night, you took your life as lovers often do. But I could have told you, Vincent, this world was never meant for one as beautiful as you.

There's always a fundamental misery that's with me that I always relate to some bit of loss or something. I don't know what it is about me, but even though I'm happy on the surface, there's something there, I guess. So, it all comes from wherever it comes from. I really don't know where that is.

I developed this fantasy world. I found that that was much more fun and more interesting and exciting than real life was to me. Then, once I got the guitar going when I was a teenager, I set sail for the direction I've been in my whole life.