Lou Reed Quotes (46 Quotes)


    In the late '70s I started to search for the perfect sound - whatever that might be, before that I was mainly interested in drugs, insanity and the rock'n'roll lifestyle.

    I'm in this business for too long to be halfhearted about anything.

    For the truly obsessive, they can get the original Poe. I amplify it. I think it's more understandable.

    The music business doesn't interest me anymore.

    How can anybody learn anything from an artwork when the piece of art only reflects the vanity of the artist and not reality?


    I love Ornette Coleman. I love Don Cherry. I love the way those guys play.

    One of my rules is: Never listen to your old stuff.

    There's a bit of magic in everything, and some loss to even things out.

    He's a great guy, absurdly talented, and he seemed ready to sing. It's these parts he can come up with, these ways of double tracking, these really unusual harmonies - I could listen to Antony all day.

    When I first heard him I knew I was in the presence of an angel,

    I don't like overdubs, never liked them.

    When I record an album I'm trying to get as close as possible to that perfect moment.

    These are really terribly rough times, and we really should try to be as nice to each other as possible.

    Perfect Night has that magic and it has the raw energy that grabs you by the throat.

    I think it's pretentious to create art just for the sake of stroking the artists ego.

    Some even claim that I'm a terror, a dictator and they're right.


    I think that everything happens for a reason, everything happens when it's going to happen.

    I always believed that I have something important to say and I said it.

    You can't ask me to explain the lyrics because I won't do it.

    Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony.

    I think life is far too short to concentrate on your past. I rather look into the future.

    I'm an artist and that means I can be as egotistical as I want to be.

    I tried to give up drugs by drinking.

    The boots Nancy Sinatra wore to walk all over you ... Hello, I love you, won't you tell me your name

    I read that script. It's one of the most disgusting, foul things I've seen -- by any illiterate retard -- in a long time. There's no limit to how low some people will go to write something to make money.

    If it has more than three chords, it's jazz.

    I'm not joking around when I've said occasionally, trying to learn how to play a D chord properly has been a very big thing for me.

    That's why I survived because I still believe I've got something to say.

    The most important part of my religion is to play guitar.

    I don't know anyone actually who does care what a critic says.

    But I'm also talented and I know when I created something great and Perfect Night is something great, no doubt, no but.

    I'm too old to do things by half.

    I don't think I'm in any position to call myself a martial artist. I'm a student of the martial arts.

    I like to think of us as Clearasil on the face of the nation. Jim Morrison would have said that if he was smart, but he's dead.

    Me, I've concentrated on music pretty much to the exclusion of other things.

    I always thought martial arts was the most modern choreography we could have right now, and I always wanted to put it to music.

    There's only X amount of time. You can do whatever you want with that time. It's your time.

    I don't believe in dressing up reality. I don't believe in using makeup to make things look smoother.

    I can concentrate on my art.

    I don't like nostalgia unless it's mine.

    Music was what bothered me, what interested me.

    I cleaned up my act because otherwise I would have kicked the bucket.

    Perfect Night is minimalistic and that's what makes it so forceful.

    Take a walk on the wild side.

    I don't really think about what the subject of my next album will be. I just know that I'm going to make another album.


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