Appreciation of Music Quotes

Everyone wants to understand art. Why don't we try to understand the song of a bird? Why do we love the night, the flowers, everything around us, without trying to understand them? But in the case of a painting, people think they have to understand.

Do you ever look at the sky and think, I'm glad I'm alive? After I heard System of a Down, I thought, I'm actually alive to hear the shittiest band of all time. Which is quite something when you think about it. Of all the bands that have gone before and all the bands that'll be in the future, I was around when the worst was around.

Driving around with my dad, growing up, he would play everything: Philip Bailey, Manhattan Transfer, Frank Zappa, Cream. I'd be like, 'Dad, cut this stuff off!' And he'd say, 'No, you're gonna listen to it.' I didn't understand why he liked it so much. In my mind, I would be thinking about the theme song to 'Sonic the Hedgehog.'

If you give a good performance, something that gets some feeling across to people, that's such a rare gift. It's underestimated at this point in history, when the music biz is inevitably turning into a kind of politics.

When I am singing, I believe that if I respect the public, then they will respect me, and I know it. It's noticeable.

Great music is in the ear of the beholder.

Maybe it's because I was too much reality, but I'm not interested in seeing too much reality anymore. I'd rather watch a Dean Martin concert and let the world go by.

A musical education is necessary for musical judgement. What most people relish is hardly music; it is rather a drowsy reverie relieved by nervous thrills.

In Japan, the way they act at shows is very different from home because they don't yell, they clap for about 10 seconds after the song and then it's completely silent.

My dad always told me that anyone's voice is just another instrument added to the music.

My mom loved my Christmas music, so I did an awful lot of it!

I had no interest in music. But now, music means everything to me. I have no words to explain how beautiful music is. It is where you can create everything, like beautiful songs to sad songs to almost anything.

Music - that's been my education. There's not a day that goes by that I take it for granted.

I set a Google Alert for myself, and now I'm seeing people say my music influenced them and how great it is all the time. Sometimes I listen to this stuff that's supposed to be influenced by me, and I can't hear myself in it. But I'd rather they say it than not.

In the kind of fast-food world that we live in, where everything's so fast paced and it's, 'Look over here! Look over there,' we don't really take the time to sit down and enjoy music - or anything else, for that matter.

I never could get into The Chambers Brothers. They make good records, but I never could get behind it.

There is always the possibility of beauty where there is an unsealed human eye; of music where there is an unstopped human ear; and of inspiration where there is a receptive human spirit.

It's great, the number of people that I'm reaching through the Internet - I've done some wonderful interviews - but I miss touching the bodies. I miss shaking hands, looking into people's faces and saying, 'Hello, how are you doing? Thank you for playing my music.'

Often audiences vary... but I've always found Milwaukee to be a fabulous place to play with great audiences and very hip.

The audience, they're not professionals. They just love music. It isn't necessary to play over their heads to be admired.

I'm a big fan of live music and going to gigs, but I'll leave it to the professionals.

If you don't have the possibility of listening to music, you can't know if you love it.

No matter what kind of artist you are, you like good music.

Ladies and gentleman, I've suffered for my music, now it's your turn.

When I hear people clapping at the wrong times, I think that's great. We have got a listener that's not used to going to - we have got a new listener.