One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz.
Lou Reed
There's a bit of magic in everything, and some loss to even things out.
Take a walk on the wild side.
Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony.
You can't beat two guitars, bass, and drums.
The most important part of my religion is to play guitar.
I was a product of Andy Warhol's Factory. All I did was sit there and observe these incredibly talented and creative people who were continually making art, and it was impossible not to be affected by that.
I don't like nostalgia unless it's mine.
I think life is far too short to concentrate on your past. I rather look into the future.
When I was in college, I had a jazz radio show. I called it 'Excursion on a Wobbly Rail,' after a Cecil Taylor song. I used to run around the Village following Ornette Coleman wherever he played.
These are really terribly rough times, and we really should try to be as nice to each other as possible.
If it has more than three chords, it's jazz.
I wouldn't want to hear Beethoven without beautiful bass, the cellos, the tuba. It's very important. Hip-hop has thunderous bass. And so does Beethoven. If you don't have the bass, it's like being amputated. It's like you have no legs.
You can't beat 2 guitars, bass, and drums.
I think that everything happens for a reason, everything happens when it's going to happen.
Meditation doesn't have to be complicated. What I do is about as simple as you can get. You could just count the beads, one, two, three, with your eyes closed or open, whatever makes you happy.
I don't believe in dressing up reality. I don't believe in using makeup to make things look smoother.
Perfect Night has that magic and it has the raw energy that grabs you by the throat.
How can anybody learn anything from an artwork when the piece of art only reflects the vanity of the artist and not reality?
In the late '70s I started to search for the perfect sound - whatever that might be, before that I was mainly interested in drugs, insanity and the rock'n'roll lifestyle.
I'm an artist and that means I can be as egotistical as I want to be.
I cleaned up my act because otherwise I would have kicked the bucket.
Music should come crashing out of your speakers and grab you, and the lyrics should challenge whatever preconceived notions that listener has.
I don't know what goes on in the crowd. I've had them show up and throw beer cans at me. I caused riots in most of the major cities.
I'm not joking around when I've said occasionally, trying to learn how to play a D chord properly has been a very big thing for me.
Sound is more than just noise. Ordered sound is music. My life is music.
For a while, I felt a little self-impelled to write Lou Reed Kind of songs. I should have understood that a Lou Reed song was anything I wanted to write about.
But I'm also talented and I know when I created something great and Perfect Night is something great, no doubt, no but.
I've become completely well adjusted to being a cult figure.
The music is all. People should die for it. People are dying for everything else, so why not the music?
When I record an album I'm trying to get as close as possible to that perfect moment.
I can create a vibe without saying anything, just by being in the room.
I've never been super confident about anything. The work is never as good as it could be.
I wanted to be an actor. That was my real goal. But I wasn't any good at it, so I wrote my own material and acted through that. That's my idea of fun. I get to be all these things in the songs.
I am very emotionally affected by sound. Sounds are the inexplicable... There is a sound you hear in your head, it's your nerves, or your blood running.
I'm in this business for too long to be halfhearted about anything.
I don't think I'm in any position to call myself a martial artist. I'm a student of the martial arts.
I don't know anyone actually who does care what a critic says.
I tried to give up drugs by drinking.
Perfect Night is minimalistic and that's what makes it so forceful.
Music was what bothered me, what interested me.
I can't do anything I want to. I mean, I can't have my own TV show. I can't have my own movie. But within my little world, nobody tells me what to put on the albums.
That's why I survived because I still believe I've got something to say.
I can concentrate on my art.
I don't like the word rock opera, but I'm trying to write on that level that's reserved for plays still, or novels.
Some even claim that I'm a terror, a dictator and they're right.
People think that I work out but it's all t'ai chi.
I'll tell ya, I'm a genuinely nice guy. I really am. A real nice guy. But I think I'm temperamental.
I don't mind a repetitive chorus; I mind repetitive verse. I mean, it's the same amount of space. Why would you have only three diamonds if you can have six?
I have no control over the audience. I have no idea what they think. My heart's pure. I can't do anything. I really can't do anything. I don't know what goes on in the crowd.
