Quotes from Lou Reed

I'm writing about real things. Real people. Real characters. You have to believe what I write about is true or you wouldn't pay any attention at all. Sometimes it's me, or a composite of me and other people. Sometimes it's not me at all.

You can't beat two guitars, bass, and drums.

You can't beat 2 guitars, bass, and drums.

If it has more than three chords, it's jazz.

Perfect Night has that magic and it has the raw energy that grabs you by the throat.

I don't know what goes on in the crowd. I've had them show up and throw beer cans at me. I caused riots in most of the major cities.

I think that everything happens for a reason, everything happens when it's going to happen.

To wish for the crazy times one last time and freeze it in the memory of a camera is the least a great artist can do.

These are really terribly rough times, and we really should try to be as nice to each other as possible.

How can anybody learn anything from an artwork when the piece of art only reflects the vanity of the artist and not reality?

I'm a humanist.

You do what you love, or you get arrested.

You can't always trust your mother.

And no kinds of love are better than others

I don't like the word rock opera, but I'm trying to write on that level that's reserved for plays still, or novels.

Meditation doesn't have to be complicated. What I do is about as simple as you can get. You could just count the beads, one, two, three, with your eyes closed or open, whatever makes you happy.

In the late '70s I started to search for the perfect sound - whatever that might be, before that I was mainly interested in drugs, insanity and the rock'n'roll lifestyle.

I'll tell ya, I'm a genuinely nice guy. I really am. A real nice guy. But I think I'm temperamental.

What could there be more purely bright in truth's day star?

Caroline says as she gets up from the floor, you can hit me all you want to, but I don't love you anymore.

I'm too old to do things by half

I love Ornette Coleman. I love Don Cherry. I love the way those guys play.

There's a bit of magic in everything, and some loss to even things out.

I wouldn't want to hear Beethoven without beautiful bass, the cellos, the tuba. It's very important. Hip-hop has thunderous bass. And so does Beethoven. If you don't have the bass, it's like being amputated. It's like you have no legs.