Lou Reed

I don't like nostalgia unless it's mine.

Raymond Chandler managed to write about L.A. his whole career. Should I keep going writing about New York? Is that what I should be doing? Songwriting doesn't work that way.

I don't really think about what the subject of my next album will be. I just know that I'm going to make another album.

You can't beat 2 guitars, bass, and drums.

I don't know anyone actually who does care what a critic says.

I cleaned up my act because otherwise I would have kicked the bucket.

My God is rock'n'roll.

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.

Some even claim that I'm a terror, a dictator and they're right.

I always thought martial arts was the most modern choreography we could have right now, and I always wanted to put it to music.

One of my rules is: Never listen to your old stuff.

Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony.

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 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.

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 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 believe in dressing up reality. I don't believe in using makeup to make things look smoother.

I don't think I'm in any position to call myself a martial artist. I'm a student of the martial arts.

I always believed that I have something important to say and I said it.

There's a bit of magic in everything, and some loss to even things out.

Sound is more than just noise. Ordered sound is music. My life is music.

You can't beat two guitars, bass, and drums.

Me, I've concentrated on music pretty much to the exclusion of other things.

Perfect Night is minimalistic and that's what makes it so forceful.

You can't ask me to explain the lyrics because I won't do it.

I don't like overdubs, never liked them.

People think that I work out but it's all t'ai chi.

The music business doesn't interest me anymore.

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.

There's only X amount of time. You can do whatever you want with that time. It's your time.

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.

Perfect Night has that magic and it has the raw energy that grabs you by the throat.

I can concentrate on my art.

That's why I survived because I still believe I've got something to say.

I don't think anybody is anybody else's moral compass. Maybe listening to my music is not the best idea if you live a very constricted life. Or maybe it is.

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.

I'm an artist and that means I can be as egotistical as I want to be.

Take a walk on the wild side.

I think that everything happens for a reason, everything happens when it's going to happen.

I'll tell ya, I'm a genuinely nice guy. I really am. A real nice guy. But I think I'm temperamental.

Music was what bothered me, what interested me.

I think it's pretentious to create art just for the sake of stroking the artists ego.

I can create a vibe without saying anything, just by being in the room.

How can anybody learn anything from an artwork when the piece of art only reflects the vanity of the artist and not reality?

When I record an album I'm trying to get as close as possible to that perfect moment.

I tried to give up drugs by drinking.

You're a musician: You play. That's what you do.

I think life is far too short to concentrate on your past. I rather look into the future.

Music should come crashing out of your speakers and grab you, and the lyrics should challenge whatever preconceived notions that listener has.

I've never been super confident about anything. The work is never as good as it could be.

These are really terribly rough times, and we really should try to be as nice to each other as possible.

One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz.

I'm in this business for too long to be halfhearted about anything.

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?

I love Ornette Coleman. I love Don Cherry. I love the way those guys play.

But I'm also talented and I know when I created something great and Perfect Night is something great, no doubt, no but.

If it has more than three chords, it's jazz.

The most important part of my religion is to play guitar.

I'm too old to do things by half.

I'm writing about real things. Real people. Real characters. You have to believe what I write about is true or you wouldn't pay any attention at all. Sometimes it's me, or a composite of me and other people. Sometimes it's not me at all.

It's depressing when you're still around and your albums are out of print.