Quotes About Music

Having a tradition is a great thing to work within, and maybe today [it] is the only way to really land musically dramatic work.

It is already a great thing if the main ideas and general outline of a work come without any racking of brains, as the result of that supernatural and inexplicable force we call inspiration.

Motown was the mecca. It was every writer's dream to work there.

A work of art must make the rules: rules do not make a work of art...I tell people I am not a musician; I work with rhythms, frequencies and intensities...tunes are merely the gossips of music.

I cannot work and listen to Wagner at the same time, nor Mahler, nor Beethoven's late quartets. I enjoy listening to Chopin's piano music when I work.

The great men of music close periods; they do not inaugurate them. The pioneer work, the finding of new paths, is left to smaller men.

The first time I tried to sing along with my guitar, everybody in the studio booed. They all said it wouldn't work.

I always say that I am very proud of the work that I did with the Rolling Stones and that I am also proud of what I have done with the Rhythm Kings.

The original vocals had an awful lot of work put into them at the time, and I wasn't really sure that I could better them - I don't know if I have bettered them.

I tour more than I need to, more than is good for you. But it's my favorite part of music. I much prefer it to studio work.

The majority of the people I work with are more than musicians and singers, they are personal friends and friends help each other.

My core values are still the same about music, and my work ethic, and what I want to represent to people.

I leave Hollywood, I go somewhere else and make some music, and then, when I have to go back to work, I try and take as much that I get from outside Hollywood back with me.

For me, filmmaking combines everything. That's the reason I've made cinema my life's work. In films, painting and literature, theatre and music come together. But a film is still a film.

I'm a really good team player. That's what it takes to work in the theater. That's what it takes to work in a band with musicians and writers.

I don't like reading music. It's like learning a language. You can't read music proficiently overnight. It takes time, it's boring work.

If I put a value on my music, and no one's prepared to pay that, then more fool me, but the idea that the value is created by the consumer is an idiot plan; it can't work.

While listening, to things like western swing, for instance, I'd work something out in my head, then play it on my National; not the same song, but one that captured the feeling of the original tune.

Being a songwriter requires versatility while being an artist requires you to create a cohesive body of work. I truly enjoy both.

In theory, I'd like to work in a group. But the group I'd like to work in, all the musicians in them are long since dead.

Music breeds its own inspiration. You can only do it by doing it. You may not feel like it, but you push yourself. It's a work process. Or just improvise. Something will come.

I really want to work on a record of mine and I'm just getting inspiration from different sources like one of my favourite bands, Led Zeppelin, and Radiohead.

The score is doing a lot of work. It's like Wagner. It's like a yak carrying people.

You listen to Handel operas, right? And there are a thousand of them, right? And they all sound alike. If I look back on my work, maybe it's the same thing.