110+ Lou Reed Quotes On World, And Marriage And Beatles

Lou Reed was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was the lead guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter of the rock band the Velvet Underground, and his solo career spanned five decades. His work with the Velvet Underground and as a solo artist was a major influence on alternative rock, punk rock, and experimental music. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Lou Reed on life, love, world.

Top 10 Lou Reed Quotes

1. I'm an artist and that means I can be as egotistical as I want to be.
2. 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.
3. Take a walk on the wild side.
4. One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz.
5. Perfect Night has that magic and it has the raw energy that grabs you by the throat.
6. Perfect Night is minimalistic and that's what makes it so forceful.
7. Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony.
8. But I'm also talented and I know when I created something great and Perfect Night is something great, no doubt, no but.
9. These are really terribly rough times, and we really should try to be as nice to each other as possible.
10. Life's like a mayonnaise soda.

Lou Reed Image Quotes

Take a walk on the wild side. — Lou Reed

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

Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony. — Lou Reed

Lou Reed Short Quotes

• I think that everything happens for a reason, everything happens when it's going to happen.
• My God is rock'n'roll.
• There's only X amount of time. You can do whatever you want with that time. It's your time.
• There's a bit of magic in everything, and some loss to even things out.
• I tried to give up drugs by drinking.
• Underachievers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose except your fright.
• But I found tai chi when I was studying with Leung Shum, who teaches Eagle Claw and Wu Hao.
• I would like to live to a ripe old age and raise watermelons in Wyoming.
• Between thought and expression lies a lifetime.
• An eye for an eye is elemental.

Lou Reed Quotes About Life

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

Moving on has allowed me to know who I am and to be present in all that I do. I take this forward in my work and in my personal relationships. It is a powerful program and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to move on with their life. — Lou Reed

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

I dreamed that I was young and smart, and it was not a waste. I dreamed that there was a point of life, and to the human race. — Lou Reed

My God is rock'n'roll. It's an obscure power that can change your life. The most important part of my religion is to play guitar. — Lou Reed

As you practice things, you get better. I mean I've worked very hard on changing my life and taking what is good about it and trying to jettison the things I think were not good about it. I think the key word is "discipline," focus. I'm always working at it, but I'm not always successful. — Lou Reed

Lou Reed Quotes About Love

And no kinds of love are better than others — Lou Reed

I've made love to my mother, killed my father, and my brother. What am I to do? — Lou Reed

You do what you love, or you get arrested. — Lou Reed

Caroline says as she gets up from the floor, you can hit me all you want to, but I don't love you anymore. — Lou Reed

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

I love women, I think they're great. — Lou Reed

What I really love is my scotch. It's the power, the power of positive drinking. — Lou Reed

Lou Reed Quotes About Perfect

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

Over what guilty spirit to not hear the beating, to not hear the beating, but only tears of perfect moan, only tears of perfect moan. — Lou Reed

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

Lou Reed Quotes About Music

It's the music that kept us all intact, kept us from going crazy. — 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

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

Don't the people you're around shape the music, is that what you're saying? Everything does. — Lou Reed

Music is an amazing thing. I don't know if we really think about it the same way we consider a painting an amazing thing. I mean, a painting is, in quotes, imaginary. There is nothing on the canvas when you start; and writing a song, there is nothing there when you start. — Lou Reed

Writhe and sway to music's pain searing with asides, caress death with a lover's touch for it shall be your bride. — Lou Reed

Music was what bothered me, what interested me. — Lou Reed

How could you even dream or think something of someone who is as uncommercial as I am? — Lou Reed

The music business doesn't interest me anymore. — Lou Reed

The music is all. People should die for it. People are dying for everything else, so why not the music? — Lou Reed

Lou Reed Quotes About Play

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

I don't like the word rock opera, but I'm trying to write on that level that's reserved for plays still, or novels. — Lou Reed

I mean, there are peripheral things I do, I do photography, I write plays, I have books published, but that's neither here not there. — Lou Reed

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

When I was in college, I had a jazz radio show. I called it 'Excursion on a Wobbly Rail,' after a Cecil Taylor song. I used to run around the Village following Ornette Coleman wherever he played. — Lou Reed

Lou Reed Quotes About Artist

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

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

To wish for the crazy times one last time and freeze it in the memory of a camera is the least a great artist can do. — Lou Reed

Lou Reed Famous Quotes And Sayings

Take a walk on the wild side. — Lou Reed

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

Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony. — Lou Reed

You do this because you like it, you think what you're making is beautiful. And if you think it's beautiful, maybe they think it's beautiful. — Lou Reed

I take drugs just because in the 20th century in a technological age living in the city there are certain drugs you have to take just to keep yourself normal like a caveman. Just to bring yourself up or down, but to attain equilibrium you need to take certain drugs. They don't getcha high even, they just getcha normal. — Lou Reed

Will none of the powers that be realize what Brian Wilson did with the chords. Deftly taking from all sources, old rock, Four Freshman, he got in his records a beautiful hybrid sound - Let Him Run Wild, Don't Worry Baby, I Get Around, Fun, Fun, Fun - 'and she had fun, fun, fun 'till her daddy took her T-bird away.' — Lou Reed

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

I am bigger and stronger than ever. My Chen Taiji and health regimen has served me well all of these years, thanks to Master Ren Guang-yi. I look forward to being on stage performing, and writing more songs to connect with your hearts and spirits and the universe well into the future. — Lou Reed

Herpes, AIDS, the Middle East at full throttle. Better check that sausage before you put it in the waffle. — Lou Reed

All I want to do, is write rock and roll that you could listen to as you got older, and it wouldn't lose anything; it would be timeless, in the subject matter and the literacy of the lyrics. — Lou Reed

Well, everybody does something, some people race cars, others collect stamps, I find tai chi to be philosophically, aesthetically, physically and spiritually fascinating. — Lou Reed

I don't like nostalgia unless it's mine. — Lou Reed

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

That's why I survived because I still believe I've got something to say. — 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 like druggy downtown kids who spray paint walls and trains. I like their lack of training, their primitive technique. I think it hurts you, when you stay too long in school. — 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

I like mindless disco... they say the lyrics are stupid and repetitious. So what's wrong with that? So is lying in the sun. Not everything has to be serious. — Lou Reed

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

Does anyone need yet another politician caught with his pants down and money sticking in his hole? — Lou Reed

Nothing beats 2 guitars, drum and bass. — Lou Reed

The baby sits in front of MTV watching violent fantasies, while Dad guzzles beer with his favorite sport only to find his heroes all coked up. — Lou Reed

When the past makes you laugh and you can savor the magic that lets you survive your own war, you'll find that that fire is passion and there's a door up ahead - not a wall. — Lou Reed

They tied his arms behind his back to teach him how to swim, they put blood in his coffee and milk in his gin. — Lou Reed

It's fun to be in a small club and to be able to look somebody right in the eye and watch them just freak. Then it's fun to be in front of thousands of people and watch a couple of hundred freaking out of their minds. — Lou Reed

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

When you think the night has seen your mind, That inside your twisted and unkind, Let me stand to show that you are blind. Please put down you hands cause I see you. I'll be you mirror. — Lou Reed

Some people drink to unleash their libidos, and other people drink to prop up their egos. — Lou Reed

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

I've always believed that there's an amazing number of things you can do through a rock'n'roll song and that you can do serious writing in a rock song if you can somehow do it without losing the beat. — Lou Reed

It's just a temporary thing. — Lou Reed

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

Valium would have helped that bash. — Lou Reed

Not too many songwriters, when they write songs go for broke. When someone does who's really good, it's astonishing. There's a reason a three-minute song can devastate you, or make you get up and dance, stop what you're doing and go, 'What is that?' It just hits you. And it's a very potent thing you're playing around with. — 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

Dear Pope, send me some hope or a rope. — Lou Reed

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

When I saw that combination of grace and power, the fast and the soft, the yin and the yang, that's what I'd been looking for. — 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. — Lou Reed

If someone teaches you alignment and - I'm not a tai chi expert by any stretch - so interviewing me about tai chi is kind of the cart before the horse - but just from my point of view as a student, it's simply that Master Ren can show you the relationship of power, stance and form. — Lou Reed

I don't mind a repetitive chorus; I mind repetitive verse. I mean, it's the same amount of space. Why would you have only three diamonds if you can have six? — Lou Reed

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

High energy does not necessarily mean fast, high energy has to do with heart. — Lou Reed

With Master Ren, if I'd tell him I can't do that and he'd say, yes you can, and it turns out I very much can do it. — Lou Reed

The currents rage so deep upon us, this is the age of video violence. — Lou Reed

The heart says what only the heart knows. — Lou Reed

People can vote for who ever they want. That doesn't mean I have to go near them. — Lou Reed

Kill them now, cause I need some kicks. I need some kicks, I'm getting bored. — Lou Reed

When he beat my mother it made me so mad. — Lou Reed

Electricity comes from other planets. — Lou Reed

When you pass through the fire, you pass through humble. — Lou Reed

I'm tearing down Route 80 East, the sun's on my right side. I'm drunk, but my vision's good. — 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 have no control over the audience. I have no idea what they think. My heart's pure. I can't do anything. I really can't do anything. I don't know what goes on in the crowd. — Lou Reed

When critics ask you if you feel vindicated by other critics - I didn't like critics then, and I don't like them now. There you go. I've always been outside the mainstream, and it stayed that way. — 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

Sometimes, you've got to be in a place. You're just another guy. You can just blend in. I live out in the wilds of nowhere, out in Jersey. Even there, there's sometimes problems. College students like journey out there and show up at 11 o'clock at night, on my porch, looking into the door not saying anything. My wife and I are sitting there; it's really creepy. — Lou Reed

Let's do what you fear most That from which you recoil But which still makes your eyes moist — Lou Reed

Any human being should have a tolerance for anybody. — Lou Reed

I've become completely well adjusted to being a cult figure. — Lou Reed

I try very much, whenever I do projects, whatever it is, there's only one thing on my mind, only one thing. — Lou Reed

People didn't know certain things about me, which... I was out of creative writing class in school, Syracuse University; had a B.A. in English and wanted to write the great American novel but I also loved rock and roll. I was in bar bands all through college, playing fraternities and have to know all the songs in the top 10. That kind of thing. — Lou Reed

You can't always trust your mother. — Lou Reed

The only thing constantly changing is change, and change is always changing for the worse. — Lou Reed

She never ever lost her head even when she was giving head. — Lou Reed

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

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

You know the expression 'God protects fools and drunks'? I qualify for both. — Lou Reed

I'm too old to do things by half. — Lou Reed

Rock & roll is so great, people should start dying for it. You don't understand. The music gave you back your beat so you could dream...The people just have to die for the music. People are dying for everything else, so why not for music? Die for it. Isn't it pretty? Wouldn't you die for something pretty? — Lou Reed

What could there be more purely bright in truth's day star? — Lou Reed

Eve kissed Able, that's how he got murdered by Cain. — Lou Reed

The president's dead, no one can find his head, its been missing for two weeks. But no one seemed to notice it. — Lou Reed

Senator, it has been reported that you have had illegal congress with your mother. — 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

Life Lessons by Lou Reed

1. Lou Reed taught us to be authentic and to stay true to ourselves. He was not afraid to express his opinions and stand up for what he believed in, even if it was unpopular.
2. He also showed us the importance of perseverance, as he worked hard to make his dreams a reality and never gave up.
3. Lastly, Lou Reed showed us the power of creativity and how it can be used to make a lasting impact on the world around us.