Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,161,747 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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Music
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“If Pac-Man had affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in dark rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive electronic music.”
Marcus Brigstocke (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I was coming up, trying to get to where I am now, people were so happy for me. They were rooting for me. Now that I'm on top, everyone wants to bring me down. Everyone's trying to tug at me and take my spot... A lot of people say they hate Justin Bieber who haven't even listened to my music. They just hate the idea of me.”
Justin Bieber (born 1994) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with V Magazine, as quoted in UsMagazine: Justin Bieber Talks Sex, Drugs and Turning 18, January 2012
“If you really don’t enjoy the type of music I make and that’s not you, OK. But don’t say I’m not talented. If you haven’t noticed, I wasn’t made — I was found.”
Justin Bieber (born 1994) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Billboard Interview, January 28, 2013, as quoted in Elite Daily, 'Justin Bieber Feels That He Is Entitled To Winning A Grammy'.
“I want to grow as an artist and I'm taking a step out, I want my music to mature.”
Justin Bieber (born 1994) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Radio interview to Power 106, as quoted in Daily Mail, 'I'm retiring man': Justin Bieber announces that he's quitting his career as a singer during interview on national radio, 18 December 2013
“The music I love to play is Rock 'N Roll. I love to rock like a wild animal. I love to rock it well enough to whip a yak's ass. I love to whip it good on a horse's ass. I love to rock it real hard. I love to rock it all the way to Russia. I love to kick out the Jazz and kick it out all the way.”
Wesley Willis (1963–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Van Morrison remains a singer who can be compared to no other in the history of modern popular music.”
Greil Marcus (born 1945) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: When That Rough God Goes Riding: Listening to Van Morrison (2010).
“It’s always been like this. Every generation finds its own way to show that it isn’t like the one before. Too much risk, too much sex, terrible music, not enough respect for the old ways. This is no different.”
Daniel Abraham (born 1969) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rates of Change (with Ty Franck as James S. A. Corey), in Meeting Infinity (2015), edited by Jonathan Strahan, and published by Solaris , e-book edition
“Adding insult to injury, the National Enquirer reports that Rielle Hunter (née Lisa Druck) has dumped [[w:John Edwards|[John] Edwards]]. So he's lost two elections, two women, his dignity and maybe soon his freedom and his law license. He may have a career ahead of him in country music.”
James Taranto (born 1966) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From Best of the Web Today for June 3, 2011
“Music is the art of sounds in the movement of time.”
Ferruccio Busoni (1866–1924) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Essence of Music (1923)
“If, as is nearly always the case, music appears to express something, this is only an illusion,and not a reality.”
Robert Craft (1923–2015) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Down a Path of Wonder (2006)
“Music is geometry in time.”
Arthur Honegger (1892–1955) first seen 1951 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: I am a Composer (1951)
“I suppose every decade gets the music it deserves.”
Robert Charles Wilson (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Music is life and, like it, inextinguishable.”
Carl Nielsen (1865–1931) said by 1931 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Music is the universal language of mankind.”
John Wilson (Scottish writer) first seen 1822 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Nocted Ambrosianae (1822-5).
“Rammstein is an award-winning music-based German-teaching system for American goths.”
Johannes Grenzfurthner (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Rhythmical music is that which is made by instruments which render the sound by touch.”
Johannes Tinctoris (1435–1511) said by 1511 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Music is the outward and audible signification of inward and spiritual realities.”
Peter Warlock (1894–1930) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Sackbut (1920)
“In our world, I rank music somewhere between hair ribbons and rainbows in terms of usefulness.”
Suzanne Collins (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Her people were great travelers once, going from district to district to perform their music. Tam Amber remembers it, as he was about my age when the war ended and the Peacekeepers rounded up the Covey, killing all the adults and confining the kids to our district.”
Suzanne Collins (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Music is a pastime, a relaxation from more serious occupations.”
Alexander Borodin (1833–1887) first seen 1867 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to V A Krylov, 1867, in Borodin: Collected Letters.
“We have lost the old love of work, of work which kept itself company, which was fair weather and music in the heart, which found its reward in the doing, craving neither the flattery of vulgar eyes nor the gold of vulgar men.”
John Lancaster Spalding (1840–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Well, I never been to Spain But I kinda like the music Say the ladies are insane there And they sure know how to use it They don't abuse it, never gonna lose it I can't refuse it.”
Hoyt Axton (1938–1999) said by 1999 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Soft as church music.”
Dan Patrick (sportscaster) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is nothing more regenerating than music.”
Epifanio de los Santos (1871–1928) first seen 1928 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Philippine Free Press. Manila. April 28, 1928.
“He was the first highly educated and cultured Filipino to direct he attention of his countrymen to their illustrious men, and to their art, literature, poetry and music.”
Epifanio de los Santos (1871–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted by Hartendorp “Don Pañong – Genius" in Philippine Magazine (September 1929).
“All we have is the past, but for people of the future, there's not even going to be a history there. The history of recorded music has turned into a flat fucking screen of an iTunes playlist. I'm preserving something that's going extinct! That's all rock'n'roll has been since day one. It's all necrophilia.”
Ariel Pink (born 1978) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Before Today you may have considered Ariel Pink quite kitsch (July 10, 2010)
“Music is the medicine of a troubled mind.”
Walter Haddon (1515–1572) first seen 1567 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lucubrates Poemata 'Musica (1567)
“Religion is hard work. Its insights are not self-evident and have to be cultivated in the same way as an appreciation of art, music, or poetry must be developed.”
Karen Armstrong (born 1944) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Jazz music is a form of accelerated unconcern.”
Françoise Sagan (1935–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For me the music is a vehicle for my lyrics. It's a chance to get some really good words across.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We got all the influences for it [Global a Go-Go] from Willesden High Road. When you go out for milk and cigarettes you go through three countries because all the shops and cafes are playing their own music, like going through hell.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: About Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros' album Global a Go-Go (2001) and about the song writing process.
“Enthusiasm is achieved chiefly by means of provocations. In these cases, something inside of us resonates vibrantly with something outside. / The form of the provocation—be it book, music, sporting event, conversation—matters insofar as it might help to us find these sources of resonance.”
Carson Cistulli (born 1979) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Century of Enthusiasm (2007)
“Music is therapy for me. It's my outlet for every negative thing I've ever been through. It lets me turn something bad into something beautiful.”
Amy Lee (born 1981) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Explaining her song "Call Me When You're Sober" in "Evanescence: Amy Lee Explains the New Songs" at VH1 News (18 September 2006)
“I discovered that the computer is not like the violin; it doesn't take inborn genius or a lifetime of practice to get sweet music out of it.”
Brian Hayes (scientist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I listen to everything, all types of music.”
Luis Miguel (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[paintings as] the plastic equivalent of the sounds, noises and smells found in theaters, music-halls, cinemas, brothels, railways station, ports.”
Carlo Carrà (1881–1966) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In: 'Piani plastici come espanzione sferica nello spazio', Carrà, March 1913
“Well, I like people a lot. I could define myself as a pacific being, a lover of nature, music and people. The qualities that I admire the most in the human being is the capacity of getting along with its similars in holy peace.”
José José (1948–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The really good music, whether of the East or of the West, cannot be analyzed.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1930 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Rabindranath Tagore (14 April 1930), published in The Religion of Man (1930) by Rabindranath Tagore, p. 222, and in The Tagore Reader (1971) edited by Amiya Chakravarty
“The man who enjoys marching in line and file to the strains of music falls below my contempt; he received his great brain by mistake – the spinal cord would have been amply sufficient.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But we have higher mathematics, haven't we? This gives me freedom from my senses. The language of mathematics is even more inborn and universal than the language of music; a mathematical formula is crystal clear and independent of all sense organs. I therefore built a mathematical laboratory, set myself in it as if I were sitting in a car, and moved along with a beam of light.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I can't speak or write German, but I'am overjoyed because I have bought one of your pictures. Now it is in me. I write music. You are my teacher.”
John Cage (1912–1992) first seen 1935 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote from his letter to Jawlensky, early Februari 1935; as cited in 'The shape of the Future 3: Art' in Where the Heart Beats: John Cage, Zen Buddhism, and the Inner Life of Artists, by Kay Larson, Penguin 2012, p. unk…
“I remember loving sound before I ever took a music lesson. And so we make our lives by what we love.”
John Cage (1912–1992) first seen 1949 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lecture on Nothing" (1949)
“Until I die there will be sounds. And they will continue following my death. One need not fear about the future of music.”
John Cage (1912–1992) first seen 1957 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote of "Experimental Music", John Cage (1957)
“Which is more musical, a truck passing by a factory or a truck passing by a music school? Are the people inside the school musical and the ones outside unmusical?”
John Cage (1912–1992) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Communication", the third of the Composition as a Process lectures, John Cage gave in Darmstadt in 1958 and published in Silence.
“When I hear what we call music, it seems to me that someone is talking. And talking about his feelings, or about his ideas of relationships. But when I hear traffic, the sound of traffic — here on Sixth Avenue, for instance — I don't have the feeling that anyone is talking. I have the feeling that sound is acting. And I love the activity of sound.. .I don't need sound to talk to me.”
John Cage (1912–1992) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote of Cage, in an interview with Miroslav Sebestik, 1991; in Listen, documentary by Miroslav Sebestik. ARTE France Développement, 2003; as quoted on Wikipedia, note 54
“Be happy, be happy; you shall have your red rose. I will build it out of music by moonlight, and stain it with my own heart's-blood. All that I ask of you in return is that you will be a true lover, for Love is wiser than Philosophy, though she is wise, and mightier than Power, though he is mighty.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The public want actresses, because they think all actresses bad. They don't want music or poetry because they know that both are good. So actors and actresses thrive and poets and composers starve.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I hate singers, a miserable crew who think that music exists only in their own throats.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Follow the seasons of Ha, Ride in the state carriage of Yau, Wear the ceremonial cap of Chan, Let the music be the Shiu with its pantomimes.”
Confucius (551–479 BC) said by 479 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted by T. W. Pearce, "Western Civilisation in Relation to Protestant Mission Work", The Chronicle of the London Missionary Society (August 1890), p. 237
“A man's character is formed by the Odes, developed by the Rites and perfected by music.”
Confucius (551–479 BC) said by 479 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source