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Lou Reed

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Quotes
68

I don't like nostalgia unless it's mine.
Lou Reed
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.
Lou Reed
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.
Lou Reed
You can't beat 2 guitars, bass, and drums.
Lou Reed
I like mindless disco... they say the lyrics are stupid and repetitious. So whats wrong with that So is lying in the sun. Not everything has to be serious.
Lou Reed
I don't know anyone actually who does care what a critic says.
Lou Reed
I cleaned up my act because otherwise I would have kicked the bucket.
Lou Reed
My God is rock'n'roll.
Lou Reed
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.
Lou Reed
Some even claim that I'm a terror, a dictator and they're right.
Lou Reed
I always thought martial arts was the most modern choreography we could have right now, and I always wanted to put it to music.
Lou Reed
One of my rules is: Never listen to your old stuff.
Lou Reed
Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony.
Lou Reed
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.
Lou Reed
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.
Lou Reed
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.
Lou Reed
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.
Lou Reed
I don't believe in dressing up reality. I don't believe in using makeup to make things look smoother.
Lou Reed
I don't think I'm in any position to call myself a martial artist. I'm a student of the martial arts.
Lou Reed
When you're growing up in a small town you know you'll grow down in a small town there is only one good use for a small town you hate it and you know you'll have to leave.
Lou Reed
I always believed that I have something important to say and I said it.
Lou Reed
There's a bit of magic in everything, and some loss to even things out.
Lou Reed
Sound is more than just noise. Ordered sound is music. My life is music.
Lou Reed
You can't beat two guitars, bass, and drums.
Lou Reed
Me, I've concentrated on music pretty much to the exclusion of other things.
Lou Reed
Perfect Night is minimalistic and that's what makes it so forceful.
Lou Reed
You can't ask me to explain the lyrics because I won't do it.
Lou Reed
I don't like overdubs, never liked them.
Lou Reed
People think that I work out but it's all t'ai chi.
Lou Reed
The music business doesn't interest me anymore.
Lou Reed
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.
Lou Reed
There's only X amount of time. You can do whatever you want with that time. It's your time.
Lou Reed
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.
Lou Reed
Perfect Night has that magic and it has the raw energy that grabs you by the throat.
Lou Reed
I think that everything happens for a reason everything happens when its going to happen.
Lou Reed
I can concentrate on my art.
Lou Reed
If I hadn't heard rock and roll on the radio, I would have had no idea there was life on this planet.
Lou Reed
That's why I survived because I still believe I've got something to say.
Lou Reed
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.
Lou Reed
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.
Lou Reed
I'm an artist and that means I can be as egotistical as I want to be.
Lou Reed
Take a walk on the wild side.
Lou Reed
I think that everything happens for a reason, everything happens when it's going to happen.
Lou Reed
I'll tell ya, I'm a genuinely nice guy. I really am. A real nice guy. But I think I'm temperamental.
Lou Reed
Music was what bothered me, what interested me.
Lou Reed
I think it's pretentious to create art just for the sake of stroking the artists ego.
Lou Reed
I can create a vibe without saying anything, just by being in the room.
Lou Reed
There's a bit of magic in everything, and then some loss to even things out.
Lou Reed
How can anybody learn anything from an artwork when the piece of art only reflects the vanity of the artist and not reality?
Lou Reed
When I record an album I'm trying to get as close as possible to that perfect moment.
Lou Reed
I tried to give up drugs by drinking.
Lou Reed
You're a musician: You play. That's what you do.
Lou Reed
I think life is far too short to concentrate on your past. I rather look into the future.
Lou Reed
Music should come crashing out of your speakers and grab you, and the lyrics should challenge whatever preconceived notions that listener has.
Lou Reed
I've never been super confident about anything. The work is never as good as it could be.
Lou Reed
These are really terribly rough times, and we really should try to be as nice to each other as possible.
Lou Reed
One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz.
Lou Reed
I'm in this business for too long to be halfhearted about anything.
Lou Reed
I've become completely well adjusted to being a cult figure.
Lou Reed
The music is all. People should die for it. People are dying for everything else, so why not the music?
Lou Reed
I love Ornette Coleman. I love Don Cherry. I love the way those guys play.
Lou Reed
But I'm also talented and I know when I created something great and Perfect Night is something great, no doubt, no but.
Lou Reed
Theres a bit of magic in everything and some loss to even things out.
Lou Reed
If it has more than three chords, it's jazz.
Lou Reed
The most important part of my religion is to play guitar.
Lou Reed
I'm too old to do things by half.
Lou Reed
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.
Lou Reed
It's depressing when you're still around and your albums are out of print.
Lou Reed

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