Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,808 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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“The oldest, truest, most beautiful organ of music, the origin to which alone our music owes its being, is the human voice.”
Richard Wagner (1813–1883) first seen 1851 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Opera and Drama (1851)
“We're like a really nice drink. We help people get through the day--we make life a little sunnier. I don't think we have any profound effect. If anybody has had a profound effect, it's The Beatles, and their effect is still minimal. There are things in the world way more important than music. Family is 50 times more important than music.”
Billy Corgan (born 1967) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Corgan, William. Interview. Playboy. (Month?), 1997.
“And then music. Wind chimes. And the sound of someone playing a violin. A fiddle. Or maybe just the music of a little dragon's wings. Maybe.”
Christopher Golden (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I haven't heard honesty in music for so long and this is how I feel, and this is what I think. You don't even have to say words … I was just being as raw as possible. I wanted to make music that you felt in your gut.”
M.I.A. (born 1975) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Archive Interview to Eye Weekly (January 2005)
“No two people on earth are alike, and it's got to be that way in music or it isn't music.”
Billie Holiday (1915–1959) said by 1959 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The art most significantly affected by radio was music, since it was abolished the acoustic or mechanical limitations on the range of sounds. Music, the last of the arts to break out of the bodily prison that confines oral communication, had already entered the era of mechanical production before 1914 with the gramophone, although this was hardly yet within reach of the masses”
Eric Hobsbawm (1917–2012) first seen 1914 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Arts 1914-1945
“Hip-hop kind of absorbed rock, in terms of the attitude and the whole point of why rock was important music. Young people felt like rock music was theirs, from Elvis to the Beatles to the Ramones to Nirvana. This was theirs; it wasn’t their parents’. I think hip-hop became the musical style that embraces that mentality.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Schoenberg's music leads us into a realm where musical experience is a matter not of the ear but of the soul alone, and at this point the music of the future begins.”
Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) first seen 1911 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote of Kandinsky, 1911; in Concerning the Spiritual in Art, transl. Michael T. Sadler (1914); reprint. New York: Dover, 1977), p. 17
“I think any music of any worth has been done by people who were very interested in the internal process of their soul and their mind that's taking place while they're writing music.”
John Frusciante (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My goal as an actor is always to be as truthful as possible, and to find the truth in the material I am representing. So I think that it’s the same with performing music. But in a way, performing your own music, it’s easier to find the truth in it, because it’s coming from yourself. There’s no translation needed.”
Zooey Deschanel (born 1980) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "On Record : Zooey Deschanel of She & Him" at American Songwriter (18 March 2010).
“I think I gave indications early on that mine wasn't just going to be a commercial, er, career. If that were the case, then the first record would have been 10 versions of 'Loser.' I always thought it would be interesting if there was no such thing as gold and platinum records, or record deals, and people were just making music. What would the music sound like?”
Beck (born 1970) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Blender magazine, October 2002
“I think one of the things if you look at minimalism or expressionism, there's various movements in modern composition that I think you can see really natural relations in pop music, so I mean I always look to that in pop music.”
Patrick Stump (born 1984) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Computers and music are converging in a new era of digital Renaissance as more and more musicians such as will.i.am are learning how to code while an increasing number of software programmers are learning how to play music.”
Newton Lee wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I saw The Sound of Music again recently, and I loved it. Probably it's a more valuable film now than when it first came out, because some of the things it stood for have already disappeared. There's a kind of naive loveliness about it, and love goes by so fast … love and music and happiness and family, that's what it's all about. I believe in these things. It would be awful not to, wouldn't it?”
Julie Andrews (born 1935) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Photoplay (September 1973)
“My life is like a music-hall, Where, in the impotence of rage, Chained by enchantment to my stall, I see myself upon the stage Dance to amuse a music-hall.”
Arthur Symons (1865–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The fact that certain composers have been able to create first-class music within the medium of film proves that film music can be as good as the composer is gifted.”
Jerry Goldsmith (1929–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Simple motion strikes us as banal. The time element must be eliminated. Yesterday and tomorrow as simultaneous. In music, polyphony helped to some extent to satisfy this need. A quintet as in 'Don Giovanni' is closer to us than the epic motion in [[w:Tristan und Isolde|'Tristan [und Isolde]']]. Mozart and Bach are more modern than the [music of the] nineteenth century.”
Paul Klee (1879–1940) first seen 1081 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote (July 1917), # 1081, in The Diaries of Paul Klee, translation: Pierre B. Schneider, R. Y. Zachary and Max Knight; publisher, University of California Press, 1964
“I strive to make my art bear the same relation to painting that polyphony bears to music. Illustrative music is a thing of the past: it has become abstract and purely aesthetic, dependent for its effect upon rhythm and form.”
Stanton Macdonald-Wright (1890–1973) first seen 1917 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Bryant American Pictures And Their Painters (1917), p. 302
“Great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and leaves the memory with difficulty. Magical music never leaves the memory.”
Thomas Beecham (1879–1961) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: [Beecham admitted to Neville Cardus that he had made this up on the spur of the moment to satisfy an importunate journalist; he acknowledged that it was an oversimplification. (Neville Cardus: 'Sir Thomas Beecham, A Mem…
“Music is spiritual. The music business is not.”
Van Morrison (born 1945) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Times [London] (6 July 1990)
“I think that my music is very unique and connects both worlds. That's the reason why I named my album Come Closer. I believe in cultural sharing, in the idea of we-belong-altogether. In my opinion, music should have no borders and we should all try to come closer.”
“Commercial rock ’n’ roll music is a brutalization of the stream of contemporary Negro church music … an obscene looting of a cultural expression.”
Ralph Ellison (1914–1994) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Some Questions and Some Answers" (1958), in The Collected Essays, ed. John F. Callahan (New York: Modern Library, 1995), p. 298.
“I figured out that my passion is not really for music. My passion is actually for people. So the exploration into different musics of different times has to do with trying to figure out who these people are, what this music represents and what context do we want to give it and what does it mean to us right now.”
“I think of the Ramones when I think of music that can save your life, but I’m not so sure about a band like Fall Out Boy who appears to make music in vein or that, at least, doesn’t sound like something they would die for.”
Shingai Shoniwa (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If [music] has that tag on it, regardless if it sounds like that or not they’ll never go and find out what it really sounds like. To be labeled “emo” is sometimes very apropos, because there are a bunch of bands that actually sound like carbon copies of each other. But again, that’s music, so.”
Joe Trohman (born 1984) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Obviously the people that I admired, like the Beatles, were really into rock'n'roll, but it was already a little past rock'n'roll when I started listening and making my own choices about music. I've been lucky to listen to lots of different types of music.”
Elvis Costello (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My idea is that there is music in the air, music all around us, the world is full of it and you simply take as much as you require.”
Edward Elgar (1857–1934) first seen 1896 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In conversation in 1896, quoted in R J Buckley Sir Edward Elgar (London: Bodley Head, 1905), p. 32.
“People who talk of the spread of music in England and the increasing love of it, rarely seem to know where the growth of the art is really strong and properly fostered: some day the press will awake to the fact, already known abroad and to some few of us in England, that the living centre of music in Great Britain is not London, but somewhere further North.”
Edward Elgar (1857–1934) first seen 1903 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Canon Gorton, organizer of the Morecambe Music Festival, published in The Musical Times, July 1903.
“I could hear the band playing a cheery sort of music. I don’t like jazz music as a rule, but I was glad to hear it that night. I think it helped us all.”
Steve Turner (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I wrote and recorded music for many years, thinking I was only pleasing myself. The fact that so many people have appreciated the music, makes my life incredibly rewarding and full.”
Happy Rhodes (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is a high fantasy element in the music, but I’m incredibly plugged into what’s going on politically, socially and pretty much in every way except pop-culturally. I’ve had a very real life, and there have been a lot of things that took a lot of strength and wherewithal to figure out… things I’m still figuring out. That’s probably why the music has such an element of escapism to it”
Lana Del Rey (born 1985) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: NME (11 December 2015)
“And we danced; Out there on that empty hardwood floor. The chairs up and the lights turned way down low The music played, we held each other close. And we danced.Like no one else had ever danced before. I can't explain what happened on that floor. But the music played, We held each other close, And we danced. Yeah, we danced.”
Brad Paisley (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And the fact of the matter is that everyone should play music because it's such a beautiful gift. It's my religion. But maybe not everyone should play it in front of me. It's okay to play music in your rocking chair or whatever.”
Josh Homme (born 1973) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in Jay Babcock, "JOSHUA HOMME: People say [record] labels are evil. No, they’re just lame.", Arthur Magazine (December 4, 2007).
“In earlier days I used to like introducing new music in concerts but now I feel that I have done my duty to young composers… so I return to my first love Romantic music – and especially to Brahms who has always been my favourite.”
Pierre Monteux (1875–1964) said by 1964 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Pierre Monteux in his own words', Classic Record Collector, Autumn 2003, Number 34, p. 18
“Music has a natural place in our lives. Right from the shloka you recite in your morning puja and the milkman who comes whistling on his cycle, to the fakir singing as he begs for alms and your mother humming around the kitchen...Music fills our spaces naturally. It will always be dear to us.”
“I was blessed by God with a talent to express myself through the art-form called music, I eventually found love in it and had no other choice than to embrace it and ever since, I’ve come to enjoy it; I feel like I was born to do it and I really want to continue to make music. To me, it’s sort of like life because I can relate it with everything that happens around me.”
Slim Burna (born 1988) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Slim Burna-Burn it up!", Afro-Hits (September 2nd, 2013)
“I was brought up on Music, and being near Tiruvaiyaru for sometime during childhood , I got several opportunities to listen to great Music.”
Rukmini Devi Arundale (1904–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Even if the world ends, the Music will still survive....Music has no caste.”
Bismillah Khan (1916–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From being made to wait in the kitchen to becoming the cynosure of attention and interacting with the who’s who has been a big leap. Music is no longer something that ‘respectable people’ keep children away from. We’ve had corporate czars and barons like Arvind Parekh and Brijbhushan Kabra taking to music.”
Zakir Hussain (musician) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I began there was an expectation that I play like Abbaji, but over the years luckily for me music lovers got around to accepting me for what I play... Look at others like Ustad Bismillah Khan’s son who has lost his way in trying to play shehnai like his father. Copying his father is one thing but taking his music forward is quite another.”
Zakir Hussain (musician) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As far as Indian music is concerned I wouldn't call myself a torchbearer. It's the media that focuses on it, like at one time Pandit Ravi Shankar was the poster boy of Indian music. It did not matter that there were equally good sitar players in India that time. Everybody talked about him and not others like Pandit Nikhil Banerjee or Ustad Ali Anwar Khan”
Zakir Hussain (musician) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Music is my love. And because it is my love, music has become my religion.”
Hariprasad Chaurasia (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Music helps you understand the deeper musings of the mind. Listening to music can help a person to a better understanding of his inner drives. This, in turn, gives him the confidence to follow the path in life dictated by his heart.”
Hariprasad Chaurasia (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Music assists you in your quest of the spark hidden within, the moment you discover your real self through music, the reason why you have been born becomes clear. This realisation ultimately helps you mould your path to achieve your dreams.”
Hariprasad Chaurasia (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Motivate the younger generation to listen to music especially, when they are tired, when they are upset about anything. Music is the best remedy; it remediates you mentally, physically and emotionally.”
Hariprasad Chaurasia (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All that I write whether poetry or music centred around God. This is an act of faith in me. Music is not worth its name otherwise.”
Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma (1813–1846) said by 1846 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: V. K. Subramanian (2013), in 101 Mystics of India, p. 181
“On voice and music: "The voice, for me, is probably the best instrument, but, on the other hand, when a person sings words they immediately limit themselves to a certain category of people, to a particular dialect. Music without lyrics travels more easily and may be biologically conceived and received".”
Vangelis (1943–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Music for me is life, I stay in my studio until ten or eleven at night and I record every day. Not for money or for albums - I just compose music.”
Vangelis (1943–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I understand the world through music and I believe that music shapes the universe. Mankind has always had a sense of wonder about space, has always been curious. It's something that's implanted in us. It's natural to want to travel and discover. It is, always has been, and is always going to be like this. We are space.”
Vangelis (1943–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Vangelis has been writing and performing electronic music for three decades and suggests that it is perhaps the only genre - with the exception of "pure" classical music - that can comunicate universally.”
Vangelis (1943–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source