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 2007:

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.

Talent without ambition is sad, ambition without talent even worse.
  • Larry Karp, MD, _The Music Box Murders_ 1999
 Elvis was known to shoot his TV set anytime Robert Goulet or Mel Torme came on the screen. That isn't all he pointed his gun at, though. He also shot his car when it refused to start.
  • _Mental Floss Magazine_ [May/June 2007]
 Ya ever been at a fast-food restaurant and thought you spotted me gettin' some french fries or somethin'? No? Well you ain't goin' to the right fast-food restaurants, man.
  • Elvis Presley" (1935-1977)
    (In Anthony Rubino, Jr.'s _Life Lessons From Elvis: A Parody_ [2006])
 Fame is the sun of the dead.
  • Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) _La Recherche de I'Absolu_ [1834]
 Fame is a bee. It has a song-- It has a sting-- Ah, too, it has a wing.
  • Emily Dickinson, "Fame Is a Bee"
 Eschew the monumental. Shun the epic. All the guys who can paint great big pictures can paint great small ones.
  • Ernest Hemingway
 Imagination is the highest kite one can fly.
  • Lauren Bacall
 My time has not yet come . . . some are born posthumously.
  • Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) _Ecce Homo_ [1888]
 Madness is something rare in individuals--but in groups, parties, peoples, ages--it is the rule.
  • Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) _Beyond Good and Evil_ [1886]
 You can't write the same book twice. Though I've been in historic musical situations, I can't go back and do that again. And though I run into artistic crises, they keep my life interesting.
  • Max Roach, interview 1990

 

 

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