John Zorn Quotes

Surf music is actually just the sound of the waves played on a guitar: that wet, splashy sound.

Dick Dale don't surf no more.

Surf music is played through a Showman amp with a Stratocaster guitar.

When my guitar was growling, playing surf beat, you could hear it; you could feel it.

I usually listen to surf music, not much instrumental music, and when I was younger I listened to jazz.

Man, Dick Dale shreds. He's welcomed to anybody's bar mitzvah.

I make music that surfers dig, but, like Brian Wilson in the Beach Boys, I'm the dude who never gets on the board.

In the beginning, I was so inspired by the music. I had the option to make something modern with classic undertones, but I wanted to make something that was exactly like that old sound.

Now that I'm older, I like almost anything that's done well, even surf music and instrumentals; I really enjoyed the interviews with the Ventures in your magazine.

Julie Andrews is so iconic, and I grew up watching 'The Sound of Music' - it's every girl's dream to play Maria, in a way, I think. That music!

There is no gender to my music. There's no male or female voice, no trite lyrics or poetry. It's much more abstract, so it lives with you longer.

Part of the joy of music is listening to lots of different kinds of music and learning from it. Specifically for me, I like writing songs that move me, and what moves me are beautiful songs on the piano or the guitar and really, really heavy music.

John Mayer and Jack Johnson are two of my all-time favorites. I love Colbie Caillat and really cool, beach-y, guitar, acoustic type music.

Music has no subject beyond the combinations of notes we hear, for music speaks not only by means of sounds, it speaks nothing but sound.

I explored rock culture and what the guitar can do though people like Jimmy Page and John McLaughlin, and the music moves away from pop.

Derek Trucks is a real good new artist. He's a young guy.

A good song gathers the years in. It's why you can sing it with such conviction 40 years after it's been written.

The essence of higher instrumental music lays herein that one is able to express in tones that what one is unable to say in words.

Crank up the Beach Boys, Baby.

We often feel sad in the presence of music without words; and often more than that in the presence of music without music.

Music should be something that makes you gotta move, inside or outside.

Enjoy music. Not the kind that rocks and rolls, but the music of the masters, the music that has lived through the centuries, the music that has lifted people. If you do not have a taste for it, listen to it thoughtfully. If you do not like it the first time, listen to it again and keep listening.

Roy Orbison was one of the genuinely nicest persons I've ever known. With one of the most beautiful voices in the history of recorded music he could easily have had an opera star's ego, but he was one of the humblest, kindest, sweetest human beings to grace this planet. This in spite of the enormous tragedies in his life. A brave, beautiful blessing of a man.

But most of all, the train that kept rollin' all night long of rock n' roll you cannot kill. It will live forever.

Melody is the essence of music. I compare a good melodist to a fine racer, and counterpointists to hack post-horses; therefore be advised, let well alone and remember the old Italian proverb: Chi sa più, meno sa— Who knows most, knows least.