Douglas Brinkley Quotes

People like Prince don't have to care about anything, but they care because they want music for the future to be great.

I don't care if it's a Cole Porter song, or George Gershwin, or Lennon/McCartney, or Elton John, or you know, whoever, Bob Dylan. Great songs are great songs, and they stand the test of time, and they can be interpreted and recorded with many points of view, but yet still retain the essence of what makes them good songs.

I make a timeless music. I think I've made my mark as a lyricist and as an innovator and as a tastemaker.

Since my father is a musician as well, he taught me growing up that if you can play jazz, you can learn all instruments and write on them. He wanted me to be a songwriter that can do anything in any genre. I'm all about doing every genre.

There's many, many ways to write a song. But generally, sitting down at a table and writing is not one of them.

When you write a song, a song has longevity.

I don't want to be known for anything other than writing songs.

The thing about influence is that any composer worth anything will give you the same names.

As a major contemporary composer, Madonna should not let the eye dictate to the ear.

I probably belong to a type of composer of songs who keeps thinking about melody... I am old fashioned.

Irving Berlin was the greatest songwriter of all time. I was in awe of him. But his music wasn't my music. My music was the blues.

I take my hat off to people like the Stones, but it's not for me. I couldn't do that. Jagger is brilliant and long may he rock. I couldn't make my career out of old songs; it would do my head in.

We wrote the songs we wrote - we took from our own experiences, melded it together, and wrote what became 'Appetite For Destruction.'

My father Apresh Lahiri and mother Bansari Lahiri were great composers of their time.

I believe Dad will be respected in 300 years, like Beethoven. As will Elvis, as will the Carter Family, as will Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams.

I have a history, and I am proud of my legacy as a songwriter, all of the songs that I've brought forth into our culture. I'm proud of that.

Freddie Mercury wrote songs that were real and true.

The first requirement for a composer is to be dead.

My album is better than 'Sgt. Pepper.'

Solomon was a musician and David was a musician, so it's a profession that I take seriously.

At 82, Nelson (who wrote the song "On the Road Again," among a thousand or more others) is the elder statesman of country music, a steadying and powerful voice in the industry and on environmental issues, and he's still on the road much of the year. The music keeps calling.

I owe Elvis my career, and the entire music business owes him it's lifeline.

I think The Beatles are the lasting influence on me, even more so than Dylan.

I have to say I owe my career to the master composers of the Great American Songbook who have written such high-quality songs - the best popular music ever composed.

What affected me the most about the Beatles was that they were the biggest band in the world and they could have done anything they wanted.