David Berman Quotes

When I go in front of an audience, I'll admit I sometimes have a certain amount of fear in me, because maybe the people are not going to accept what I'm doing today. That's bad for any artist, especially if what you're doing is not in line with what's happening today.

I always have the same thing - which is the fear of not getting a laugh - that I've had from the time I was a kid; obsessing over, 'This joke doesn't quite work, we've got to get this right.' I was always like that, whether I was a member of a six-person ensemble or whether I'm the center of a show.

The thing is, I feel like it would defeat the purpose of being a musician if I let any kind of fear of failure affect my songwriting or making an album or whatever.

Cello is my first instrument, then piano, drums, bass, violin, recorder, saxophone, but I'd never play them live!

When I played God Bless The Queen, I was wondering if they was gonna dig us, then quite naturally I'd go on and try to get it together.

My motivation for being a good drummer was born out of fear, which, in a way, seems so antithetical to what art should be.

The Buggles was much more a studio environment idea, which we never actually took on the road.

Trying to get my music performed live by bar bands was a self defeating experience. It really just distracted me from what I should've been doing all along, writing and recording.

I get nervous about gigs sometimes, but not with records - I always get excited.

Well, you know it was so different from when you rehearsed. You're out there with your guitar and trying to get a sound, but it doesn't sound anything like what you expect!

At some point, all comics have to go out and be retail salesmen doing door-to-door. And this idea of somebody who totally knows their craft having to get up for free in front of a crowd to work out some stuff they're thinking in their head, still, after as much success as you can get, is really interesting.

I was pleased when the picture was over I fit in all right and I spoke well enough as I said before, cause I was scared to death there for a minute. I mean, you're doing a scene with somebody like that or they're watching you or something, you'd better come up with something.

In the beginning, I was frightened to death of going solo. Especially when doing live shows, I was so used to my brothers being next to me. It felt like the crowd was just looking at me, waiting for me to either mess up or prove myself.

Created stuff is meant to be shared. That’s why the creative person created it. Why else do creative people exist?

The most miraculous process is watching a song go from a tiny idea in the middle of the night to something that 55,000 people are singing back to you.

Actually, what I did, because I couldn't make sense of it, and I have to have lyrics that make sense, I decided the best way to sing 'I Have Confidence' was to go completely nuts with panic and fear.

I find theater terrifying. There are no do-overs, you know? It's all happening live. You need to be in it 100 percent at any given moment, and the audience is right there. I'm really intimidated by theater, but it is my first true love. I love theater. I love that anxiety.

I worried so long that I would sing to empty bars my whole life. I was singing my guts out; there would be five people into it.

When you do an album, you don't get to test an album live.

'Trouble Maker' was a project that worked whenever a song that fit the concept came in.

I think that those moments before a performer plays are the moments when the potential for something to be created may - or may not - arrive.

I still love playing live, and I love doing records, but writing songs is my main thing.

I guess I'm the guy from the Beastie Boys. I'm one of the guys from the Beastie Boys. I guess that's what I'll always identify myself as.

My first live performance was when I was in the military. I went to some bar, and they had open mics. You could just sign up and perform. Nobody cared. Nobody liked it.

I just feel like this guy who's visiting the music business over the weekend. Every time I write a song, I feel like it's never going to happen again.