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Quotes about music

99 quotes from 76 people

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When real music comes to me⁠—the music of the speres, the music that surpasseth understanding⁠—that has nothing to do with me, cause I’m just the channel. The only joy for me is for it to be given to me, and to transcribe it like a medium…those moments are what I live for.
John Lennon1940–1980
If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry.
John Lennon1940–19801972 Mike Douglas Show, quoted in: Lawrence, Ken (2005) John Lennon: In His Own Words, p. 107.
It would have been better if you had died and Gershwin had written the elegy.
Oscar Levant1906–1972On a friend’s elegy for Gershwin; recounted in The Memoirs of an Amnesiac (1965)
- Clever Jabs
When she had passed, it seemed like the ceasing of exquisite music.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow1807–1882Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie (1847), Part I, section 1.
- Beauty
Music is the universal language of mankind — poetry their universal pastime and delight.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow1807–1882Outre-Mer (1835).
- Poetry
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow1807–1882The Arrow and the Song (1845)In context
- Friendship
I want every girl in the world to pick up a guitar and start screaming.
Courtney Loveborn 1964On women playing rock music, quoted in 1991, from This is the Sound: The Best of Alternative Rock (2008), p. 71
- Women
Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated? Good night!
John Lydonborn 1956At the end of the last Sex Pistols concert, Winterland Theater, San Francisco, California (14 January 1978)
To be a frontman you have to be half very driven and half a total knob. I like to think I’m both.
Chris Martinborn 1977On a Time Out London interview, June 8-15, 2005.
- Comedy
Songs can be Trojan horses, taking charged ideas and sneaking past the ego’s defenses and into the open mind.
John Mayerborn 1977Esquire magazine (November 1, 2004)
- Ideas
Who I am as a guitarist is defined by my failure to become Jimi Hendrix.
John Mayerborn 1977Mayer, John (2004). “Jimi Hendrix” RollingStone.com (accessed March 21, 2007)
- Failure
Criticism didn’t really stop us and it shouldn’t ever stop anyone, because critics are only the people who can’t get a record deal themselves.
Paul McCartneyborn 1942The Beatles Anthology (2000), p. 96
- Clever Jabs
Personally, I think you can put any interpretation you want on anything, but when someone suggests that Can’t Buy Me Love is about a prostitute, I draw the line. That’s going too far.
Paul McCartneyborn 1942The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics (1969), p. 107
- Comedy
Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie.
John Milton1608–1674Arcades (1630-1634), line 68
In my music, I’m trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason it’s difficult is because I’m changing all the time.
Charles Mingus1922–1979Statement to Nat Hentoff , as quoted in California Rock, California Sound: The Music of Los Angeles and Southern California (1979) by Anthony Fawcett, p. 56
- Change