Top quotes by Nick Cave

The concept of God in America is very different than it is in England. Because we see the horrendous outcome of religion as being an American thing, in which the name of God has been hijacked by a gang of psychopaths and bullies and homophobes, and the name of God has been used for their own twisted agendas. Votes: 16

Getting married, for me, was the best thing I ever did. I was suddenly beset with an immense sense of release, that we have something more important than our separate selves, and that is the marriage. There's immense happiness that can come from working towards that. Votes: 15

Guns are part of the American psyche, aren't they? This is collateral damage for having a Wild West mentality. It's intrinsic to the American psyche. It's never going to change. Votes: 13

I've spent my life butting my head against other people's lack of imagination. Votes: 12

I love being manipulated by what I see. I love weepies and romantic comedies where you're reaching for the Kleenex at the right moment. Votes: 11

The work ethic at art school is completely different than the work ethic amongst people who get into music. People who paint, it's an honorable thing to spend all day and all night in front of your canvas - that is the romantic vision of the painter. Votes: 10

I was reading The Bible a lot through my 20s, mostly the Old Testament, just because I was knocked out by the language and the stories. I felt that the God being talked about there, who was this insane, vindictive patriarch - it was kind of thrilling, and titillated something in me at the time. Votes: 10

I love rock-n-roll. I think it's an exciting art form. It's revolutionary. Still revolutionary and it changed people. It changed their hearts. But yeah, even rock-n-roll has a lot of rubbish, really bad music. Votes: 10

I don't have any authority to talk about the domestic policies of America. But as an outsider, I am mystified by the fact that you are encouraged to buy a gun, but if you use it for the purpose that it is expressly designed for, you get the death penalty. That aspect of America is kind of mystifying. Votes: 10

People often can't separate, or can't understand, that to be funny is to be serious; it's a way of pulling people in and not scaring them off. I think a lot of the funny stuff, underneath it, there's a deep anxiety going on. Votes: 10

I'm not in the business of telling people what to do. I'm much more in the business of describing things, situations and stuff like that and leaving them out there, and you can make up your minds about them. Votes: 9

I'm hugely self-critical in the morning. Votes: 9

I'm kind of old-school and love nothing more than sitting, opening a book, and reading it. But I also love listening to audio books. Votes: 8

I lost my innocence with Johnny Cash. I used to watch the 'Johnny Cash Show' on television in Wangaratta when I was about 9 or 10 years old. At that stage I had really no idea about rock n' roll. I watched him, and from that point I saw that music could be an evil thing - a beautiful, evil thing. Votes: 8

Early on I realized when you write a song about someone, it flatters them on some level, and gives you a lot of room to move within a relationship. A song can kind of get the girl, for sure. Votes: 8

No, I wouldn't direct a movie, no. I couldn't. I don't have the patience for it, I don't have the people skills. You have to be clever. I'm not really clever in that kind of way. And you have to be able to manipulate people, but at the same time allow them to feel like they are manipulating you, to get the kind of movie that you want. Votes: 7

Inspiration' is a word used by people who aren't really doing anything. Votes: 7

I have an armchair interest in gardening, but I don't like to get my knees dirty. I don't have a garden. Votes: 7

I'm very happy to hear that my work inspires writers and painters. It's the most beautiful compliment, the greatest reward. Art should always be an exchange. Votes: 7

As Australians, we see the law as inherently bad. We have a real inherent distaste for authority in our makeup. Votes: 6

With writing a song, I've always felt, right from the start, like I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel. I don't ever feel there's a font of ideas to fall back on. Votes: 6

At some point you start seeing the difference between what you really want, and what is your priority order. I feel that today I know what I want. That's the problem with perspective, as well as focus and concentration. Votes: 5

Being a parent can make you a horrible person at times, because you're pushed to the limit constantly. Votes: 4

If beautiful movies can influence you to go out and hug your children, then we have to be honest and say that other movies can inspire you to do bad things. Votes: 4

Accessible local libraries are vital to communities and to children. Votes: 4

You can't trust an artist that just makes good records. Votes: 4

The last thing I ever wanted to get involved with is Hollywood. The way it works is that people get an idea you could possibly do something, but there's a one-in-a-hundred chance that it could get made. Votes: 4

Despite what people might think, I'm not interested in being dark all the time. I'm actually searching for some kind of light, and I'm always very happy when I can achieve that. Votes: 3

I am not interested in anything that doesn't have a genuine heart to it. You've got to have soul in the hole. If that isn't there, I don't see the point. Votes: 3

My father was a teacher and my mother also worked in the school, so the family has a background in education. Votes: 2

I have a particular dislike for children's films. I'm way past the novelty aspect. Votes: 0

The only person who can say they're happy getting old is someone who isn't actually old yet. Every day, I get less and less happy about that idea. Votes: 0

Writing screenplays makes me a better musician because it clears my head. After writing a movie, I go running back to music as fast as I can. Votes: 0

Some people, myself in particular, have an adversarial relationship with the camera, and it sprouts up in every photograph. Votes: 0

If you're Australian, you feel it in your bones because you're at odds with everybody else, except other Australians, in the sense that people always seem to be behaving strangely. People always seem to be behaving the wrong way, in a different way. You say things and there are silences. Votes: 0

The big problem with songwriting for me is starting a new song. It's the thing where all the anguish exists, not in the writing of the song, but the starting of the new song. Votes: 0

The big problem with songwriting for me is starting a new song. It's the thing where all the anguish exists, not in the writing of the song, but the starting of the new song. What do I write about? I never know. Votes: 0

Most of the time, feelings just seem to get in the way. They're a luxury for the idle, a bourgeois concept. Feelings are overrated. Votes: 0

Film seems to be a medium designed for betrayal and violence. Votes: 0

I know when I sit with my band members and we're playing back a song that we've done, I know that they're experiencing it in a completely different way and hearing stuff that they're alerted to because the way the interpret the world is through their ears. Mine is through my eyes. Votes: 0

Look, when I look back, from 20 onwards, I was actually having a pretty good time, I have to say. Votes: 0

Moving to the country is a very bold thing to do. You can have vague romantic notions about doing that, but in actuality, it can be a terrifying thing. Votes: 0

I've always hated narrative songs. I hate those songs where, basically, it's an unfolding of a story. Votes: 0

I consider myself to be first and foremost a comic writer. The way I entertain myself - especially in those long and grim hours in the office - is to write stuff I find funny. Votes: 0

Writing is a necessary thing for me, just to keep myself level. It has beneficial effects on my life. Votes: 0

I think it's a part of us as human beings that we search outside of ourselves for meaning. Votes: 0

I'm a believer. I don't go to church. I don't belong to any particular religion, but I do believe in God. I couldn't write what I write about and be creative without a certain form of belief. Votes: 0

If I'm hanging around too much, my wife and kids say, 'Hey, why don't you go downstairs and start a new novel?' Votes: 0

There's always pain around. That's one thing you can guarantee in life - there will always be a surplus of pain." Votes: 0

Then he smiles because he knows deep in his bones that his dad has gone and said something really funny probably. He kicks off his sheet and slides his feet into his slippers. Bunny sits in the living room, slumped low on the sofa, full of Geoffrey's Scotch and Poodle's cocaine." Votes: 0

Polly Jean, I love you. I love the texture of your skin, the taste of your saliva, the softness of your ears. I love every inch and every part of your entire body. From your toes and the beautifully curved arches of your feet, to the exceptional shade and warmth of your dark hair. I need you in my life, I hope you need me too. Votes: 0

An artist's duty is rather to stay open-minded and in a state where he can receive information and inspiration. You always have to be ready for that little artistic Epiphany. Votes: 0

The artistic process seems to be mythologized quite a lot into something far greater than it actually is. It is just hard labor. Votes: 0

I don't think Hollywood makes many good films anymore. How many directors can you really trust to have an artistic vision, not a corporate vision or a watered-down communal one? Votes: 0

You searched through all my poets, From Sappho through to Auden, I saw the book fall from your hands, As you slowly died of boredom. Votes: 0

As people buy less and less records, it's become more and more important for me to spend more and more on them - to lavish that much more attention on them. The Bad Seeds were always quite protective and old school, but Grinderman has opened us up to do anything and be shameless. We're not so precious about it. Votes: 0

I'm an Australian, and when I grew up much of my influences were American - blues music and country music, all that sort of thing. Votes: 0

Into the mercy seat I climb My head is shaved, my head is wired And like a moth that tries To enter the bright eye I go shuffling out of life Just to hide in death awhile And anyway I never lied. Votes: 0

This is how it essentially is for Bunny Junior. He loves his dad. He thinks there is no dad better, cleverer, or more capable, and he stands there beside him with a sense of pride - he's my dad - and he also, of course, stands beside him because he has nowhere else to go. Votes: 0

But if you're gonna dine with them cannibals Sooner or later, darling, you're gonna get eaten . . . Votes: 0

I am the captain of my pain. Votes: 0

God has matured. He is not the impulsive, bowel-less being of the Testaments - the vehement glory-monger, with His bag of cheap carny tricks and his booming voice - the fiery huckster with his burning bushes and his wonder wands. Nowadays God knows what He wants and He knows who He wants. Votes: 0

What we [outsiders] feel America is really about - the kind of crazed ravings of the Christian right - when it's probably something quite different. Votes: 0

I don't know, maybe Australian humour isn't supposed to be funny. It's as dry as the Sahara, and I think people miss that. Votes: 0

I love performing. I can get to be that person I always wanted to be - godlike. Votes: 0

I still feel very much an imposter in the whole music scene, which I'm quite happy about to be honest. Votes: 0

It's a wonderful life if you can find it. Votes: 0

The secret to longevity in the music business is to change, and to be able to change. An actor has to assume other people's identities. A rock star doesn't need to do that. But change is important. Votes: 0

To sustain hatred is a very difficult thing to do, year after year. It's exhausting. Votes: 0

Certainly being proficient in an instrument does have its problems. Because the better you get, the more you just start sounding like an ordinary guitarist. There are certainly guitarists that transcend that and do really find their sound and all that sort of stuff. Votes: 0

It's always a risky business inviting somebody on stage. You never know what they're going to do. I try to avoid letting people join me onstage because it can be very distracting, and overly theatrical. Votes: 0

L.A. is full of screenwriters. I don't know why. On many levels, it's such a thankless occupation. Votes: 0

A gentleman never talks about his tailor. Votes: 0

There's always pain around. That's one thing you can guarantee in life - there will always be a surplus of pain. Votes: 0

A rock musician's career is short-lived. To extend it, you need to do other things to keep yourself fresh. Votes: 0

When you're on your own, you have all the self-censorship that everybody has when they try and write. All the little voices that say, 'No, you can't write that, what will they think of that?' Votes: 0

Out of sorrow entire worlds have been builtOut of longing great wonders have been willed Votes: 0

What I'm resistant to is the 'Walk the Line' biopic, where you have this redemptive life done in two hours. It just doesn't wash with me. I've been there and things don't work out that way. Votes: 0

People think I'm a miserable sod but it's only because I get asked such bloody miserable questions. Votes: 0

I don't write happy songs. Who does? I don't know anybody who writes happy songs, really. Votes: 0

Rock music is the province of the young, and it should be made by young people. I'm not running around in a pair of spandex tights trying to reclaim my youth. Votes: 0

Texting is apocalyptic on some level. It's a reduction of things. Votes: 0

Musicians are at the bottom of the creative pyramid and authors are at the top, and many people think it's unacceptable for someone to attempt to jump from the bottom to the top of the pyramid. Votes: 0

The more settled I've become, the more problematic my characters have become. There was a period when I wrote sensitive and gentle songs and these came at a time when life was at its most destructive. I think you write about what you need, on some level. Votes: 0

I've always been at war with the guitar. All vocalists are fighting a war with the electric rhythm guitar. Votes: 0

I'm not a misogynist, so you can dispense with that. I think I've done wonders for the feminist movement. Votes: 0

I became a script writer with absolutely no idea of how to write a script whatsoever. I still feel a bit of an outsider in that regard. If I can maintain that approach to screenwriting, it can continue to be enjoyable. Votes: 0

I write hate lyrics really well. It's not every day you can use them, really. Votes: 0

Everything that's said against me offends me, whether it's true or not. Votes: 0

There's an element to songwriting that I can't explain, that comes from somewhere else. I can't explain that dividing line between nothing and something that happens within a song, where you have absolutely nothing, and then suddenly you have something. It's like the origin of the universe. Votes: 0

Most people wait for the muse to turn up. That's terribly unreliable. I have to sit down and pursue the muse by attempting to work. Votes: 0

It's always a pleasure on a personal note for me to come back to Australia. Votes: 0

Kylie Minogue is the greatest thing that has happened to Australian music. Votes: 0

The idea of songwriting is a transformative thing, and what I do with songwriting is take situations that are quite ordinary and transform them in some way. Apart from things like the murder ballads, the songs I write, at their core, are quite ordinary human concerns, but the process of writing about them transforms them into something else. Votes: 0

My music has to do with beauty, and it's intended to, if not lift the spirits, then be a kind of a balm to the spirits. Votes: 0

The rock star is dying. And it's a small tragedy. Rock stars have blogs now. I have no use for that kind of rock star. Votes: 0

I just want to leave this world with a massive catalog of songs. Votes: 0

People are always surprised to see clues to my being a normal kind of guy. As if I'm somehow letting the team down. Votes: 0

At the end, we're kind of observers - creative people, I mean. I feel like an observer, and I'm pretty much able to step out of things and see how things are playing out. Votes: 0

There are methods to creating a mayhem that sounds different from your usual mayhem. Because mayhem and a heavy drum backbeat end up sounding like Green Day or something. But if you put a different beat within it to create some air and lightness, the chaos comes through better. Votes: 0

I'm a big fan of teatowels and am always on the lookout for a good one. Votes: 0

My muse is my wife. It's not some vague thing that flutters around the astrosphere or wherever it is. Sometimes as a songwriter you need something to hang a song on, to give it some kind of presence and form. For me, Susie is that. Votes: 0

If you look around, complacency is the great disease of your autumn years, and I work hard to prevent that. Votes: 0

I'm not saying this in a condescending kind of way, but it's quite simple: The making of America was a heroic thing. Australia has a much murkier, much more complex view of its history. It's just full of all these open wounds we don't really know what to do with. Votes: 0

The songs that I like are the ones that you can't visualize, that are just cries from the heart - those very straight, direct songs that make rock & roll music so wonderful. Votes: 0

Songs you can dip in and out of, but a book... well, it can overpower you. Votes: 0

One of my big fears is drying up, and the more I create, the more I feel myself shrinking beneath the backlog of work I've done. Votes: 0

It's an Australian thing to be dismissive. We find that endearing. Americans don't. They believe what you say. Votes: 0

The blues is instilled in every musical cell that floats around your body. Votes: 0

It's possible to get through life without a religious structure, but I don't think that's a very fruitful way to live. Votes: 0

The more information you have, the more human our heroes become and consequently the less mysterious and godlike. They need to be godlike. Votes: 0

When I'm singing 'Deanna,' for example, which I sing pretty much every night, it brings forward a kind of imagined, romanticized lie about this particular person, which I find really comforting and exciting to sing about. Votes: 0

I have a very strange relationship in general with women around my music. There's some that understand it and some that think there should be a law against it. Votes: 0

The band is a living, breathing thing. It grows in the same way we do as human beings and if it doesn't, it dies. It's important to feed the organism, and one way of doing that is to set musical challenges that keep it alive. Votes: 0

When I perform onstage, I'm actually kind of nearsighted, so I don't have any real, true understanding of what the audience is like. Votes: 0

I'm not religious, and I'm not a Christian, but I do reserve the right to believe in the possibility of a god. Votes: 0

A is for Answering all your prayers, N is for kNowing that your loverman's going to be the answer... Votes: 0

After a while, you just don't do things you don't wanna do - that's the great freedom you get, the older you get. You learn what to do and what not to do, and what will be a waste of time and what won't be a waste of time. Votes: 0

And I kissed away a thousand tears My lady of the Various Sorrows Some begged, some borrowed, some stolen Some kept safe for tomorrow. Votes: 0

And I wish that I was made of stone So that I would not have to see A beauty impossible to define A beauty impossible to believe A beauty impossible to endure The blood imparted in little sips The smell of you still on my hands As I bring the cup up to my lips No God up in the sky No devil beneath the sea Could do the job that you did, baby Of bringing me to my knees Votes: 0

And she moves among the sparrows. And she floats upon the breeze. She moves among the flowers. She moves something deep inside of me Votes: 0

Anything that I'm doing I'm writing specifically for a particular project. Votes: 0

At school I was an anti-magnet for women. Votes: 0

be mindful of the prayers you send pray hard but pray with care for the tears you are crying now are just your answered prayers letters of light we scale merrily, move mysteriously around so that when you think you're climbing up, man, in fact you're climbing down Votes: 0

Brother, be a brother, fill this tiny cup of mine. And please, sir, make it whiskey: I have no head for wine! Votes: 0

Death looms large I guess because it should. It's the one thing that we as human beings from birth have a right to. It's the only thing we've really got, and I don't mean to sound bleak about this, but it's a unifying factor amongst us all. Votes: 0

Do I personally believe in a personal God? No. Votes: 0

Everybody tends to overplay live. That's just the nature of playing live. And that can be great, but it can also kill something that's special, and intimate, about a recorded version of a song. You find out very quickly which songs you can play, and which songs you do damage to by playing them live. Votes: 0

Everyone wants to feel that they matter. Votes: 0

Hamlet got a gun now. Votes: 0

He who seeks, finds, and who knocks, will be let in, Votes: 0

I always thought my records were number one; it's just the charts didn't think so. Votes: 0

I can control the weather with my moods. I just can't control my moods. Votes: 0

I don't believe in an interventionist God Votes: 0

I don't feel I'm thrown around by the winds of taste and fashion. Votes: 0

I don't like those songs where you have to listen to a story to get into them. I don't want to have to pay attention to music in that way, I just want it to hit me in the heart and do what music's supposed to do. Votes: 0

I don't particularly believe all love is doomed. But I guess, one is usually kinda suffering from some aborted love affair or association, rather than being at the peak of one. I think it's fairly obvious that a lot more suffering goes on in the name of love than the little happiness you can squeeze out of it. Votes: 0

I don't really care who collects my work, black, white, red, yellow. You have to also be consciously aware of, what does this mean in your home? And how are you supporting this work and the message behind the work? Votes: 0

I don't really do Japanese interviews. I don't think there's much call for me in Japan. Votes: 0

I feel very much a part of what I'm writing about, and I'm writing about things that concern me on a daily basis. I'm not really interested in writing musical diaries, if you know what I mean. Votes: 0

I get criticized for a lot of what I write about, but as far as I'm concerned I'm actually standing up and having a look at what goes on in the minds of men, and I have the authority to talk about it because I'm a man. Votes: 0

I have things that I'm interested in, and I'm not really interested in writing about anything that I'm not interested in. But it's important to me to be able to see it from a different perspective, and add something new to the whole picture. Votes: 0

I have to be able to pull you in. How can I diversify my audiences? What role do I have to play to be part of that shift? I have to take that seriously. Votes: 0

I have to be able to see the thing that's going on that I'm writing about, or else it just doesn't make any sense to me. Votes: 0

I just found this world a hard place to be good in,' says Bunny, then he closes his eyes and, with an expiration of breath, goes still. Votes: 0

I look at you and you look at me and deep in our hearts know it That you weren't much of a muse, but then I weren't much of a poet Votes: 0

I love America. I really do. It's by far the place I like visiting out of anywhere in the world. I get a palpable sense of excitement when the plane's landing. It's a cliché, but there's still an incredible energy about New York in particular. Votes: 0

I see it as my duty in some way is to be out in the world as an Australian putting forward what I consider to be authentic Australian music. Votes: 0

I suspect the older you get the more invisible you become. Votes: 0

I think I have always had a pretty strong creative impulse. And that has probably saved me from abandoning myself completely. Votes: 0

I think it's an essential fact for any performer or artist to fail as poignantly as they can succeed. Votes: 0

I think there is a certain perversity in my music in that I continue, you know, to eat at the same ball of vomit year after year. Votes: 0

I think there's a certain numbness in modern society, that accepts certain kinds of violence, but represses other kinds of violence. Votes: 0

I used to believe that if I could do certain things - write a book or be a successful musician - that I'd be transformed into a happy person, but it doesn't work that way. Votes: 0

I want to write songs that are so sad, the kind of sad where you take someone's little finger and break it in three places. Votes: 0

I was about 12 years old and I was sitting watching the television and it was some kind of talent show, you know, and on marches this monkey, this ape, in a pair of red-checked trousers with a little matching jacket holding a ukelele and it started jigging around playing it, and it was looking straight into the camera, straight at me, and I remember thinking, that's it, that'll be me, you know, that'll be me. Votes: 0

I write songs from the point of view I had at a time;I'm not tryingto write songs from a young person's point of view.That only ends in disaster. Votes: 0

If you got a trumpet, get on your feet, brother, and blow it! Votes: 0

If you took love out of the equation, I wouldn't know what else to write about. Votes: 0

If you're involved with imagination and the creative process, it's not such a difficult thing to believe in a God. But I'm not involved in any religions, and I've never intended to make religious records or records that preach some kind of point of view. Votes: 0

I'm a kind of hard-wired pessimist. I can't help but see the world in a certain kind of way. Votes: 0

I'm always sort of looking for projects that I can sort of put out into the world, into the public sphere, and to somehow cause an effect. I want to be able to create projects that sort of are going to make people think and think in this sort of magical, sort of fantastical way. Votes: 0

I'm unable to really write the kind of song that doesn't have a visual element, which most songs don't. Votes: 0

In the hysterical technocracy of modern music, sorrow is sent to the back of the class where it sits, pissing its pants in mortal terror. Votes: 0

'Inspiration' is a word used by people who aren't really doing anything. Votes: 0

Inspiration is a word used by people who aren't really doing anything. I go into my office every day that I'm in Brighton and work. Whether I feel like it or not is irrelevant. Votes: 0

It is the haunted premises of longing that the true love song inhabits. It is a howl in the void, for love and for comfort and it lives on the lips of the child crying for his mother. It is the song of the lover in need of her loved one, the raving of the lunatic supplicant petitioning his God...The love song is the sound of our endeavors to become God-like, to rise up and above the earthbound and the mediocre. Votes: 0

It was about the preciousness of that, and how they viewed those birds as art, as something valuable. I didn't care one way or another back then, but now, thinking about my grandparents - who are still alive but getting older - I see the birds as sort of time capsules. Now I go home during the holidays and they hold a lot of weight in terms of nostalgia and memory. Now they mean everything. Votes: 0

It's very important that the music has a sense of adventure to it, and that it's done by the seat of your pants. There's a kind of nervy element about it. Votes: 0

It's very intuitive, the way that I approach my work. I only buy something that has a pulse. I may not know how I'm going to use it, but I know it has a pulse and it has multiple readings - if I shift it one way or another, it can be read this way or it can be read that way, but both readings are critical and very much ground the work. Votes: 0

I've always done a lot of research and stuff around the songs that I write so there are pages and pages of writing and you can kind of see these songs emerging. Votes: 0

I've always had an obligation to creation, above all. Votes: 0

I've always worn suits. To me they're a very practical kind of thing to wear. You put one on and don't really have to think about what you're going to wear. Votes: 0

I've got some words of wisdom. Votes: 0

I've had to try and find a way over the years of writing narratively that doesn't really require you to sit down and work out what the story's about. You're brought into a sort of sequence of images that have that emotional resonance, but it's kind of irrelevant what the actual story is. It's taken me maybe 13 albums or something to work that out. Votes: 0

I've never been interested in being relevant. Votes: 0

I've watched 'Oprah Winfrey.' And I'm proud. I don't care what anybody says! I don't know whether I've watched it. I've been in the room while it's been on. Votes: 0

Love is a state that I would like to exist in continuously. Votes: 0

Love songs come in many guises and are seemingly written for many reasons "“ as declarations or to wound "“ I have written songs for all of these reasons "“ but ultimately the love songs exist to fill, with language, the silence between ourselves and God, to decrease the distance between the temporal and the divine. Votes: 0

Most screen violence is tedious. Votes: 0

Music is storming, driving, relentless, devotional, slinky, subtle, heartbreakingly-beautiful sounds that, lyrically, switch from the cynical to the sanguine, the defeated to the defiant, dealing in love, war, beauty, children, romance, rejection, Pethedine, poetry, panties, God, Auden, Johnny Cash, cold potatoes, too-much-money, not enough money, writer's block, flowers, animals and more flowers. But maybe I'm projecting here. Votes: 0

My records are basically a litany of complaints against the world, and I'm quite like that in real life as well. Votes: 0

My responsibility as an artist is to turn up at the page or the piano or the microphone. The rest is up to God. Votes: 0

No wonder sorrow doesn't smile much. No wonder sadness is so sad. Votes: 0

Not my biggest fear, but my biggest problem onstage is over-emphasizing what I do. I'm pushing too hard. You need to engage an audience. They need to be able to involve their own imaginations as well. They don't need everything thrust down their throat, and I have a tendency to do that. I always have had a tendency to do that. Votes: 0

Oh, a passing, skeptical kind of interest. I'm a hammer-and-nails kind of guy. Votes: 0

One thing that I'm really interested in is the kind of esoteric detail that surrounds these great figures. And Wikipedia is full of that kind of stuff, whether it's true or untrue. It staggers me: why, in the short space assigned to a person or an event, that kind of random information is there. To be honest, that's wonderful fuel for songwriting. Votes: 0

Out of sorrow entire worlds have been built out of longing great wonders have been willed they're only little tears darling let them spill and lay your head upon my shoulder. Votes: 0

Outside the world of politics, one person in the world of the arts I would mention as an influence is Nick Cave, another person who has been around since the late 1970s. He has developed and changed remarkably, whilst remaining true to his vision. He has been a great help to me as well, without his knowing it. Votes: 0

Said 2,000 years of Christian history, baby And you ain't learned to love me yet? Votes: 0

Sometimes the song isn't strong enough to contain the fiction, because memories are fictions. Votes: 0

Songs need to have the ability to change and to grow for sure. They take on lives of their own. Some songs just don't have that capacity. They're locked within a period of time. And as soon as you take them out of that period of time, they die very quickly. Votes: 0

Songwriting, I have to take myself away from everybody to do. It's an unsightly act. Votes: 0

Sorrow's child grieves not what has passed, but all the past still yet to come. Votes: 0

Sound doesn't always have to be heard. Sound can also be created by how a pattern is set up on a surface- how it moves across the surface, how light reflects the surface [and] can generate a feeling. Sound can also be through feeling, through color, through texture. Votes: 0

Stars have their moments then they die. Votes: 0

That's what I like about watching a movie: you enter an imagined world that's more interesting, more engaging than your own. Or less painful than your own. Votes: 0

The actualising of God through the medium of the love song remains my prime motivation as an artist. Votes: 0

The body becomes the carrier for the work. It's not really about the physical body; it really becomes the apparatus that carries and moves the work. I don't really consider the body as much; I look at it as a tool. Votes: 0

The editing of a song is largely what makes the song for me and I think that actually if I had started going like 'I want you to burn' it would have pinned that song down to a particular thing and made that song a smaller idea than what it is. By leaving that off it's much more open, broader. Votes: 0

The love song must be born into the realm of the irrational, absurd, the distracted, the melancholic, the obsessive, the insane for the love song is the noise of love itself and love is, of course, a form of madness. Votes: 0

The older I get, the more I feel those kinds of ghosts - especially the women in my life - moving out of the shadows a bit more and becoming more present in my life. Votes: 0

The problem with books, now that I've written one, is that the idea of adaptation is so much easier than sitting down to write something new. Votes: 0

The reason I've gotten into script-writing, which was accidental to begin with, was that I found it was a far more effective medium for violence. Which is something that I'd always written in songs, but the violence always sat strangely within a song. And I was always interested in the way in which you listen to murder ballads and things like that - these weird lines would kind of come out, like, I drug her by the hair or something - that sat weirdly in the song. Film seems to be a medium designed for betrayal and violence. Votes: 0

The society of whores stuck needles in an image of me. Votes: 0

The way I go about writing records is that I make a calendar date to start the new record, so I have nothing. I don't have a bunch of notes that I bring into the office, I start with nothing at all. Votes: 0

The way I take in the world is by seeing it; that is very much evident in the songs that I write. Votes: 0

The writer who refuses to explore the darker regions of the heart will never be able to write convincingly about the wonder, the magic and the joy of love for just as goodness cannot be trusted unless it has breathed the same air as evil. Votes: 0

There are times when I think I can sing it better, but usually I find that I can't. Votes: 0

There's that kind of song, "Whoah baby, I love you," which doesn't have a visual element, but a very strong emotional element, and these are the great songs to me - those ones that you put them on and they just make you feel great, or whatever. Votes: 0

To my undying shame, I do read reviews. I don't read them all, but I like to get some kind of idea how things are going. Votes: 0

We are still struggling with people who don't feel comfortable going into museums. As a visual artist I ask how artists can be part of enacting a change. Votes: 0

We as visual artists need to continue to be renegades and say, "Yes I am here to do a project, but what is the social service?" Votes: 0

We cannot afford to be idle. To act on a bad idea is better than to not act at all. Because the worth of the idea never becomes apparent until you do it. Sometimes this idea can be the smallest thing in the world, a little flame that you hunch over and cup with your hand, and pray will not be extinguished by all the storm that howls about it. If you could hold onto that flame, great things could construct around it, that are massive and powerful and world changing, all held up by the tiniest of ideas. Votes: 0

Well, as anyone who actually writes knows, if you sit down and are prepared, then the ideas come. There's a lot of different ways people explain that, but, you know, I find that if I sit down and I prepare myself, generally things get done. Votes: 0

What I think about when I frequent the Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan [Museum of Art], and I look at these artifacts that are taken out of context and how we're forced to view them as objects, as relics, as sculpture- static. But what's interesting is what it allows me to do in my head in terms of imagining what the possibilities are or imagining the role in which they played within a particular culture which I'm fascinated by. Votes: 0

What you're really after when you see a film or listen to a song is a singular vision, and I'm not sure how much of that you really get in Hollywood. Votes: 0

When you've been initiated, you can stand in the world differently. And I think it is up to all of us, we can have cheerleaders, we can have supporters, but it comes down to us as individuals, how do we now proceed? Do we have the tools to proceed? Votes: 0

Who knows their own story? It certainly makes no sense when you're in the middle of it Votes: 0

You don't meet a lot of people that you really like. I don't anyway. Votes: 0

You know, an idea is just an idea. There seems to... the kind of epiphanies that you have, like the little sudden bursts of light, they're very small and they're very short and it's the pursuit of the idea that's the important thing. . . . I know a lot of people who have way better ideas than I do that-much more frequently than I do that just can't sit down and actually do it. Ideas are such are a little overrated really; it's the work behind the idea that's the important thing. Votes: 0

You write a scene, and it works or it doesn't. It's immediate. Votes: 0

Your limitations make you the wonderful disaster you most probably are. Votes: 0

You're collaborating with people you don't even know, when you're making a film. You're collaborating with people you've never seen. So, the collaborative process is very, very different than when you're collaborating on a record with the musicians you've worked with all your life. Votes: 0

You're one microscopic cog in his catastrophic plan. Votes: 0

All of our days are numbered. We cannot afford to be idle. To act on a bad idea is better than to not act at all, because the worth of an idea never becomes apparent until you do it. Votes: 0

My biggest fear is losing memory because memory is what we are. Your very soul and your very reason to be alive is tied up in memory. Votes: 0

In getting older, I find myself becoming progressively more ineffectual in a lot of different ways, and part of that is down to no longer having the youthful feeling that what you're doing has any true impact. Votes: 0

I write a lot, and very often I write a couple of lines that are particularly revealing in some kind of way. And then as a few more lines get added and a piece gets added, eventually the song pretty much takes over and you can't really find a way to change those things. Votes: 0

God is in everything whether I'm mentioning him or not. Votes: 0

No fish can swim until the King is born, until the King is born in Tupelo. Votes: 0

When I start writing songs, and they come easily, I'm always very suspicious. That usually means they're reminding me of something I've already done before. When the songs become unsettling, and I feel anxious about what I'm doing, that usually means it's going to be more interesting later on when we actually record the stuff. Votes: 0