Ian Anderson Quotes

I think people must wonder how a white girl like me became a blues guitarist. The truth is, I never intended to do this for a living.

That's what I wanted to do was play music.

When I was a kid, I was interested in folk music. But rock represented power, and I became the best rock guitarist in my school.

You might lose your spontaneity and, instead of composing first-rate Gershwin, end up with second rate Ravel.

I suppose when I started playing guitar, it was the means to an end. I never thought of myself as a fully fledged guitar instrumentalist. And my early excursions on the electric guitar were curtailed when Eric Clapton came on the scene, and I decided I was never going to be in the same arena as a Clapton or a Peter Green.

People don't understand what music really is. I've been a musician since I was 6 years old. I got my first piano, was playing recitals at 8, 10 I picked up a guitar, 12 I picked up my first Pearl Master drum set. I was an artist before I was an 'artist.'

If I could sing, I wouldn't be a guitarist.

As a musician, you just want to be able to do what you love.

Yeah, I've always considered myself a musical person.

I've never known a musician who regretted being one. Whatever deceptions life may have in store for you, music itself is not going to let you down.

I've dreamed about doing music since I was three or four years old.

I'm never gonna be a Carlos Santana - an instrumentalist. I just like songs. It's three minutes of something that can be very powerful.

I started playing trumpet when I was 11 years old. All I wanted to be was a jazz trumpet player when I grew up.

From childhood I was passionately fond of music and wanted to be a musician. I have no recollection of any real desire ever to be anything else.

Believe me, were I ever to accomplish anything, it would be in music, which has always attracted me; and, without overestimating myself, I am conscious of possessing a certain creative faculty.

I wish I played an instrument, but I could never decide which one, and I ended up playing nothing.

I played the clarinet, and my sister played the violin... If we'd had the discipline and the passion, maybe we could have been good.

I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me - like food or water.

Soccer presented no challenge to me. Playing felt like breathing: I always had a magical connection to the ball. But it didn't feel like an adventure. Music was more of a challenge and, in the end, felt more interesting.

For me to want to play the trumpet was a very, very odd thing for my clan as a whole. One of my uncles was a high school principal, and he referred to my trumpet as a bugle, which really hurt me.

Music was my first love, but it was difficult for me. It's something that I really love, but I didn't feel that I was so good at it. I can sing well, but I'm not a great singer. When I sing, I don't feel I'm expressing all the emotions.

I actually was a musician in college, a composer and singer, and really intended to be the second coming of Leonard Bernstein when I got out.

I wanted to be the best guitar player in the world. And then my dad got me a portable recorder, so I started writing my own music.

I used to just sit in the living room and make up songs on the keyboard.

Ultimately it's a blessing to be able to make music.