Greg Lake Quotes

I'm a serious student of music, a perfectionist in the studio, and I take the arrangement and production of it very seriously, down to the mixing and mastering even. But at the same time I'm having so much fun with it. I try not to take myself so seriously.

I felt like a failure for so long because I wasn't able to access myself in the way I knew I would have if I was going to make music that mattered. I knew I was going to have to learn how to be honest.

I love 'I'm British But...' It's such a sweet, innocent, open-hearted film, and it has the sort of openness that I still aspire to with everything I do. It wears its heart, head, everything on its sleeve.

I don't have big anxieties. I wish I did. I'd be much more interesting.

I say whatever I think and whatever is on my mind, and I just hope that it comes out good. I just try to have a lot of fun.

I personally have a philosophy around authenticity and vulnerability.

I don't think you need a record deal to write songs. You don't need any other reason than you want to do it. It's a far cry from why some people do music today. They make it to order, which is pretty horrible.

I try to acknowledge both the sacred and the silly in my work. That goes for the live show as well. If I find myself in my head or dwelling in seriousness, I think of my friends back home and how they'd be laughing at me.

You can be true to the character all you want but you've got to go home with yourself.

The character I play is a wonderful compilation of things I hate about myself and things I love about myself and things that I've invented to make her even more interesting than me.

I'm a pretty easygoing person, and it bleeds into the music. Even if I'm writing the most personal song, it's not going to come out totally serious; there's always a little tongue in the cheek.

The less seriously you take yourself, the better work you're going to do.

To have a songwriter that wrote so specifically what I felt to be true... I've never been much of an actor either. If something is real for me, then I can do it.

I don't take myself terribly seriously. It's why I can be incredibly honest about my life.

I take deep breaths and be true to my heart.

No life is perfect; we all have our problems and issues, and I believe that it's good to be true to who you are.

I'm not perfect; I've never professed to be, and I don't want to be. How much fun is that?

I'll never be August Wilson - but what I can be is more of myself.

Nobody can tell you you're wrong for writing a song about how you feel - even if you don't really feel that way.

Be what you are. This is the first step toward becoming better than you are.

I never judge my own songwriting. It's just my heart. What's there to judge about your own heart?

The more I got into presenting things to the world, the further it was taking me away from what I was, which was someone who just used to sit quietly at a piano and sing and play. It became very important to me not to lose sight of that.

My philosophy is to be me.

When people like your music because it has vulnerable honesty, and you're able to comfortably admit to flaws and imperfections, then that's the most liberating thing about being an artist.

I've always had a sick sense of humor, and I've always wanted that to permeate the music because I don't take myself seriously. I take the music seriously, but I know I'm not God's gift to anyone except my mom.