Why am I so soft in the middle when the rest of my life is so hard?

Facts can be turned into art if one is artful enough.

We were always able to sing and blend well together; that's our gift. But aside from that, we're really two different guys.

When I was 15, I made a solo record. It made Artie very unhappy. He looked upon it as something of a betrayal.

As long as you have capital punishment there is no guarantee that innocent people won't be put to death.

You want to be a writer, don't know how or when? Find a quiet place, use a humble pen.

Not every song I write is ecstasy. And it can happen only one time. After that, when you sing the same melody and words, it's pleasure, but you don't get wiped out.

I think I have a superior brain and an inferior stature, if you really want to get brutal about it.

When I began making my own albums, the songs became funkier. They were more about the streets.

I don't like fashion. It's very heartless.

It's pointless to be critical of your stuff once it's done. I don't spend a lot of time agonising over it. It's of no importance once it's finished.

We just did what we'd done when we were an act in the '60s. But I found it impossible to hold a dialogue with 500,000 people. In a certain sense, it was numbing.

All lies and jests, still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.

My whole artistic life has always been about change, change, change, move on, move on. It's the only thing I find interesting.

My voice is my improvisational instrument, the melody instrument. The guitar is harmonic structure. I'm not a good enough guitarist to improvise on it.

One of the things that upset me was some of the criticism leveled at Simon and Garfunkel. I always took exception to it, but actually I agree with a lot of it.

We've survived by believing our life is going to get better.

I rate each album as better than the last one. That's how I see it.

Music is forever; music should grow and mature with you, following you right on up until you die.

Having a track record to live up to and the history of successes had become a hindrance. It becomes harder to break out of what people expect you to do.

Artie travels all the time. The rehearsals were just miserable. Artie and I fought all the time. He didn't want to do the show with my band; he just wanted me on acoustic guitar.

We had many more points of agreement than we had points of difference, but we did differ, and the bigger we got, the more insistent we got that each one of us should have his way.

I'm more interested in what I discover than what I invent.

Mrs. Robinson is a little dated now, but it has nothing to do with Joe DiMaggio.

The record company stay out of my way. Whenever the record is finished, they take it.

If you can get humor and seriousness at the same time, you've created a special little thing, and that's what I'm looking for, because if you get pompous, you lose everything.

I'm not in it for the money. I like music. I love to write music. I can't imagine myself not playing or singing or writing. It would just drive me crazy if I didn't.

There must be 50 ways to leave your lover.

I don't feel any pressure from fans. But I'm always in some kind of state of emotional turmoil. I would not describe myself as happy-go-lucky. That's not to say that I'm not happy.

Anybody can do bad work, but not everybody does good work.

Without Arthur's voice, I never would have enjoyed that success.

A man sees what he wants to see, And disregards the rest.

I question what emotion Manilow touches. People are entertained by him. But are they emotionally moved? I don't believe anything that Barry Manilow sings.

I was eating in a Chinese restaurant downtown. There was a dish called Mother and Child Reunion. It's chicken and eggs. And I said, I gotta use that one.

It's a big error to think that because you like somebody's work, you're going to like him.

Improvisation is too good to leave to chance.

My life so common it disappears and sometimes even music cannot substitute for tears.

Who am I to blow against the wind?

I always get very calm with baseball.

I suppose an artist takes the elements of his life and rearranges them and then has them perceived by others as though they were the elements of their lives.

Listen to the sound of silence.

I try to open up my heart as much as I can and keep a real keen eye out that I don't get sentimental. I think we're all afraid to reveal our hearts. It's not at all in fashion.

People often called us perfectionists, but we were not looking for perfection. We were looking for some kind of magic in the music.

Someone told me it's all happening at the zoo.

I would be willing to do almost anything to make Art happy. I care about our friendship. The only thing I won't do is change the essence of my work.

I think Bridge Over Troubled Water was a very good song. Artie sang it beautifully. The Boxer was a really nice record. But I don't think I've written any great songs.

Being an artist doesn't mean that you're a good artist. That was the bargain I first made with myself: I'd say, I'm an artist, but I'm not really very good.

I don't very often think I've done a good job. I don't like the majority of what I do. I shouldn't say I don't like it, but I'm not satisfied with almost everything that I do.

We got on American Bandstand, where kids would dance to a record and then rate it. We called ourselves Tom and Jerry. I was Jerry.