Neil Young Quotes (73 Quotes)

The cutthroat avenues of rock 'n' roll, I am fed up with. I don't want anything to do with it.

It's better to burn out than it is to rust.

There's nothing I did before 'Ohio' that would be in the same category -- and very little since. It's a kind of a political song as well as a feeling song, and it's dated to a particular incident, kinda like 'Rockin' in the Free World.' I just don't write that many of them.

I'm not a preacher, and I'm certainly not a good example, but I have my own feelings about God. I'm kind of a nature guy. My cathedral is forests, or the prairies, or the beach.

One of the album's most poignant songs is its closing number, When God Made Me , sung from the perspective of a man searching for his place in the divine plan. Did he create just me in his image, ... or every living thing

I don't look at a knife the way I used to. I'm more aware of what it is. I think twice. This is a key finger. It's in every chord.

It's incredibly exciting to be collaborating with Steven Spielberg, ... He shares our vision for the potential of the medium and has the passion and creativity to help us finally deliver on the promise that a game can not only engage and compel you with i

With a lot of songs on this record, one verse doesn't relate to the next verse. I don't think that one day really relates to the next day in life.

Remember when you used to watch TV in the Sixties and you'd see Perry Como in a cashmere sweater That's what rock'n'roll is becoming. It's your parents' music.

I totally have no other talent and I would be totally out of work if I did anything else.

I had a playback party for Homegrown for me and about 10 friends. We were out of our minds. We all listened to the album and Tonight's the Night happened to be on the same reel. So we listened to that too, just for laughs. No comparison.

It makes a difference. Any time you plant anything, it's when things grow.

We're trying to put you at the very heart of your own suspense thriller, ... You play you.

This thing called Patriot Act, through which we abdicated a lot of our civil rights to defend the country against terrorism, it's a four-year story.

I can get away with saying a lot of ideas that are young and naive. I'm liberated.

Earth is a flower and it's pollinating.

When the punk thing came along and I heard my friends saying, I hate these people with the pins in their ears. I said, Thank God, something got their attention.

I go in and sing the song and arrange it and mix it and that's it. It's no different than playing in clubs.

Back then people closed their eyes and listened to music. Today there's a lot of images that go with the music. A lot of music is crap and it's all commercial and the images are all trying to sell the record.

I just wrote one song at a time. Kinda like an alcoholic. One day at a time.

I have so many opinions about everything it just comes out during my music. It's a battle for me. I try not to be preachy. That's a real danger.

Better to burn out than rust out.

I haven't sung it for a long time. I can only do that one with the musicians whom I like to play with. On the (1999) Silver and Gold tour, out of 40 shows, I might have played it three times.

I don't think there is one president that's come down the line that hasn't done something good somewhere.

Ain't it hard when you wake up in the morning, and you find out that those other days are gone... All you have is memories of happiness, lingering on... All your friends and your lovers won't protect you they're only passing through you in the end... They'll leave you stripped of all that you can get to and wait for you to come back again... But still a light is shining, from that lamp on down the hall... Maybe the Star of Bethlehem wasn't a star at all.

When people start asking you to do the same thing over and over again, that's when you know you're way too close to something that you don't want to be near.

I'm not into organized religion. I'm into believing in a higher source of creation, realizing we're all just part of nature.

I don't like the American media - particularly Fox.

The thing about my music is, there really is no point.

Of course you have to support the troops. They're just kids. They're doing for their country what's expected of them.

We want computer games to move people emotionally, like a great piece of art, a great movie or a great piece of music.

The '60s was one of the first times the power of music was used by a generation to bind them together.

I live for playing live. All my records are live, since After the Gold Rush, with the exception of Trans and the vocals on Landing on Water.

I didn't really know what I was doing when I started. I just started writing songs. After two songs I just continued to explore it.

When you're in your 20s, then you and your world are the biggest thing, and everything revolves around what you're doing. Now I realize I'm a leaf floating along on the water on top of some river. That's where I'm at.

I don't like to be labeled, to be anything. I've made the mistake before myself of labeling my music, but it's counter-productive.

I don't like war. I particularly don't like the celebration of war, which I think the administration is a little bit guilty of.

As I get older, I get smaller. I see other parts of the world I didn't see before. Other points of view. I see outside myself more.

It's really the first time a filmmaker, and a filmmaker of Steven Spielberg's caliber will collaborate at this level on an original game. He understands how our medium works and wants to push it in different directions, putting innovations in a game that no one has ever seen before.

I understand we've got like a Bush subordinate in there now. That's unfortunate. But he's got a minority, right So we can get rid of him pretty soon.

Some people put down all presidents. If you say anything good about any of them, they think you're supporting everything they do.

Commitments are one of the worst things to have in the music business. They're very annoying.

I just do what I do. I like to make music.

It started off being chronological, and we tried to get a couple of songs from every period (of my career) that was acoustic, that related to this family of music we're doing. They were the predecessors. They were done when I was very young a lot of them, not all of them, but a lot of them.

I just want to play well, share the stage with my friends, let this music have us.

I feel like I could be likened to an old hound circling on a rug for the last five years.

The rockets and the satellites, spaceships that we're creating now, we're pollinating the universe.

One new feature or fresh take can change everything.

This is the sickest piece of journalism I have ever seen

I was a Reagan backer. It was a shock for some people that I could agree with anything that man would say.