Bernard Sumner Quotes

Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.

It's hard for me to measure them, or to assess my books because I'm so close to them.

I think it's important for anyone who is artistic to look back on their body of work and be critical. Maybe the Beatles can look back and say everything was perfect, but we've come up with hundreds and hundreds of dishes, and anyone who is honest with themselves has to realize that every single one wasn't an absolute, unequivocal home run.

I think it's very important to have a feedback loop, where you're constantly thinking about what you've done and how you could be doing it better.

You cannot go wrong by learning classical music because it trains the ear.

For me, making music is a continuous learning experience, and I think that it feeds itself.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

It's interesting to do other people's music - that's how I learned to play, by learning other people's songs. It's nice to delve into how other people got to where they are.

The real test of a musician is live performance. It's one thing to spend a long time learning how to play well in the studio, but to do it in front of people is what keeps me coming back to touring.

I can watch a film, even a film that I've been in, and think, 'I'm not sure, 100 percent, what I think about it.' I'm not sure what I think about what I've done in it.

I have no reason to sit home and write songs all day without going out and playing for the folks. And I have no reason to go play for the folks unless I'm writing new songs so they can sort of feed off one another. And I just try to do the best I can.

I am permanently a student of people who make great songs, but besides sort of learning by absorption, I just love listening to music, hearing what's going on, hearing new things or new old things.

It was a fantastic learning experience and OK, I got slammed because I wasn't Audrey Hepburn but you could have predicted that, really, if you'd opened your eyes wide enough.

A song like 'Heartbreaker,' it's a song about learning - it's not necessarily a song about heartbreak. It's more than that. We write those songs to relive how we got over something.

I enjoyed making this album a lot because of the knowledge we acquired over the last 3 years.

I really believe I've been a good person. Not perfect - forget about perfect - but just learning by what I was taught and living by my own values. I might have stepped on a few ants - and a few other things as well - but I've never hurt anybody.

The main thing is that I've been studying composition for the last four years. I'd say it's the life experience combined with the lessons that enabled me to go much further.

I learned so much watching my dad write songs and perform in front of thousands of people, and people were singing along to songs that I watched him write; it stuck with me.

A self-defined challenge is an irresistible teacher.

I am hoping to improve my writing and rapping, as well as get a better grasp on how to make beats and music that complements what I do vocally. It's a learning process that hopefully won't end.

Education best serves students by helping them be more self-reflective.

The real preparation for education is the study of one's self.

I haven't had a perfect career. I've put some albums out that, looking back, I'm not super proud of, but there's also a lot of stuff that I am very proud of.

Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, discouragements and doubts.

If you were your own employer, would you be entirely satisfied with the day’s work you have done today?