Lou Reed Quotes

Most Famous Lou Reed Quotes of All Time!

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

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

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

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

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

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

I can concentrate on my art.

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

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

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

I don't like overdubs, never liked them.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

I'm too old to do things by half.

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.

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

Music was what bothered me, what interested me.

My God is rock'n'roll.

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

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

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

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

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.

The music business doesn't interest me anymore.

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

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

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

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

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

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

I tried to give up drugs by drinking.

Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony.

Take a walk on the wild side.

You can't beat 2 guitars, bass, and drums.

People think that I work out but it's all t'ai chi.

One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz.

The music is all. People should die for it. People are dying for everything else, so why not the music?

I'm a humanist.

Raymond Chandler managed to write about L.A. his whole career. Should I keep going writing about New York? Is that what I should be doing? Songwriting doesn't work that way.

The first generation of CDs sounded terrible. Any chance to remaster would make the music sound better than what was already out there.

I don't know what goes on in the crowd. I've had them show up and throw beer cans at me. I caused riots in most of the major cities.

I don't think anybody is anybody else's moral compass. Maybe listening to my music is not the best idea if you live a very constricted life. Or maybe it is.

I don't like the word rock opera, but I'm trying to write on that level that's reserved for plays still, or novels.

It's depressing when you're still around and your albums are out of print.

I don't mind a repetitive chorus; I mind repetitive verse. I mean, it's the same amount of space. Why would you have only three diamonds if you can have six?

You're a musician: You play. That's what you do.

I can't do anything I want to. I mean, I can't have my own TV show. I can't have my own movie. But within my little world, nobody tells me what to put on the albums.

You can't beat two guitars, bass, and drums.

Meditation doesn't have to be complicated. What I do is about as simple as you can get. You could just count the beads, one, two, three, with your eyes closed or open, whatever makes you happy.

I've become completely well adjusted to being a cult figure.

When I was in college, I had a jazz radio show. I called it 'Excursion on a Wobbly Rail,' after a Cecil Taylor song. I used to run around the Village following Ornette Coleman wherever he played.

For a while, I felt a little self-impelled to write Lou Reed Kind of songs. I should have understood that a Lou Reed song was anything I wanted to write about.

I'll tell ya, I'm a genuinely nice guy. I really am. A real nice guy. But I think I'm temperamental.

I can create a vibe without saying anything, just by being in the room.

Sound is more than just noise. Ordered sound is music. My life is music.

I wouldn't want to hear Beethoven without beautiful bass, the cellos, the tuba. It's very important. Hip-hop has thunderous bass. And so does Beethoven. If you don't have the bass, it's like being amputated. It's like you have no legs.

I am very emotionally affected by sound. Sounds are the inexplicable... There is a sound you hear in your head, it's your nerves, or your blood running.

I have no control over the audience. I have no idea what they think. My heart's pure. I can't do anything. I really can't do anything. I don't know what goes on in the crowd.

I wanted to be an actor. That was my real goal. But I wasn't any good at it, so I wrote my own material and acted through that. That's my idea of fun. I get to be all these things in the songs.

I'm writing about real things. Real people. Real characters. You have to believe what I write about is true or you wouldn't pay any attention at all. Sometimes it's me, or a composite of me and other people. Sometimes it's not me at all.

I've never been super confident about anything. The work is never as good as it could be.

I was a product of Andy Warhol's Factory. All I did was sit there and observe these incredibly talented and creative people who were continually making art, and it was impossible not to be affected by that.

Music should come crashing out of your speakers and grab you, and the lyrics should challenge whatever preconceived notions that listener has.

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