Music, Art and Madness Quotations and Proverbs

* some views expressed in these quotations not neccesarily endorsed by the author of this file.
* for entertainment only - history is not an exact science - dates and quotes not guaranteed for accuracy.

Added for August 2005:

I manage to look so young because I'm mentally retarded.

I'd rather be dead than singing "Satisfaction" when I'm 45.
  • Mick Jagger (1943- )_People Weekly_ [May 2, 1977]
Acting is merely the art of keeping a large group of people from coughing.
  • Sir Ralph Richardson, in Garry O'Connor, _Ralph Richardson: An Actor's Life_
Jimi Hendrix might have stayed in the Army. He might have been sent to Vietnam. Instead, he pretended he was gay.
[...] Hendrix always claimed he was discharged after breaking his ankle on a parachute jump, but his medical records do not mention such an injury.
[...] He just wanted to escape the Army to play music - he had enlisted to avoid jail time after being repeatedly arrested in stolen cars in Seattle, his hometown.
  • Gene Johnson, AP_Los Angeles Times_ [July 30, 2005]
Pop music is just long hours, hard work and lots of drugs.
  • Cass Elliot (1941-1974) Joe Kohut's _Rock Talk_ [1994]
Hollywood is the kind of town where they stick a knife in your back and then arrest you for carrying a concealed weapon.
  • Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) Jon Winokur's _War Between the State_ [2004]
The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
I went to Catholic school through the eighth grade. I hated it. They didn't let me wear Levis. These nuns were ignorant. Nuns are the worst fascists.
  • Linda Ronstadt (1946- ) _Jabberrock_ [1997]
Of all possible subjects, travel is the most difficult for an artist, as it is the easiest for a journalist.
  • W. H. Auden, The Dyer's Hand
Gerswhin once attended a Manhattan party when his good friend Oscar Levant teasingly said to him, "George, if you had to do it all over, would you fall in love with yourself again?" Geogre replied, "Oscar, why don't you play us a medley of your hit?”
  • George Gershwin (1899 - 1937)
I think it's the best out of all the records I've ever made. "Rain" blows me away. It's out of left field. I know me and I know my playing, and then there's "Rain".
  • Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey)
I'd like to be a willow, A lover, a mountain or a soft refrain; But I'd hate to be a grown-up, And have to try to bear my life in pain.
  • Phoebe Snow (1952- )_Harpo's Blues_ [1973] (song)
Whoever invented the meeting must have had Hollywood in mind. I think they should consider giving Oscars for meetings: Best Meeting of the Year, Best Supporting Meeting, Best Meeting Based on Material from Another Meeting.
  • William Goldman, _Adventures in the Screen Trade_, 1983
I'm interested in anything about revolt, disorder, chaos--especially activity that appears to have no meaning.
  • Jim Morrison (1943-1971) _Jabberrock_ [1997]
[Marc] Chagall is my favorite pupil, and what I like about him is that after listening attentively to my lessons he takes his paints and brushes and does something absolutely different from what I have told him.
  • Leon Bakst (1868-1924)
Barbara Walters knows who I am? Shit! I must be famous.
  • Courtney Love (1964- ) _Jabberrock_ [1997],
Once you become predictable, no one's interested anymore.
  • Chet Atkins (1924-2001)
Do you think we should drive a stake through his heart just in case?
  • Peter Lorre (1904-1964) (To Vincent Price while at Bela Lugosi's funeral, 1956)
I don't think in terms of results. I think: What next insanity can I shock the world with?
  • Mel Brooks (1926- )_Maclean's_ [April 17, 1978]
Failure seldom stops you. What stops you is the fear of failure.
  • Jack Lemmon (1925-2001) (In a 1987 television interview)
The cinema is a shallow art. It has no--no--no fourth dimension.
  • Lillian Hellman (1905-1984)_The Children's Hour_ [1934], Act I
Simplicity is the essence of the great, the true, and the beautiful in art.
  • George Sand (1804-1876)
If I think too much, it kind of freaks me out.
  • Pamela Anderson (1967- )_Movieline_ [November 2002]
It's an ordinary day for Brian. Like, he died every day, you know.
  • Pete Townshend (1945- ) _The Life and Good Times of the Rolling Stones_ [1989]
Home is where you hang your head.
  • JJulius 'Groucho' Marx (1890-1977)
Mad is the man who is forever gritting his teeth against that granite block, complete and changeless, of the past.
  • Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900-1944)_The Wisdom of the Sands_ [1948]
If you can't say just what you mean, in words and all other efforts at precise meaning, then sing it. If you can't bawl it, yell it; if you can't yell it, howl it; if you can't howl it, scream it; if you can't scream it, try whispering it; if that does not do, then whine and sob it.
  • Bernard Berenson (1865-1959)
From wine what sudden friendship springs!
  • John Gay (1685-1732) _Fables, II [1738], _The Squire and His Cur_

 

 

 

 

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