Lou Reed Quotes

I tried to give up drugs by drinking.

There's a bit of magic in everything, and some loss to even things out.

I don't like nostalgia unless it's mine.

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

I don't think I'm in any position to call myself a martial artist.

I'm a student of the martial arts.

Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony.

These are really terribly rough times, and we really should try to be as nice to each other as possible.

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.

But I'm also talented and I know when I created something great and Perfect Night is something great, no doubt, no but.

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

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.

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

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

My God is rock'n'roll.

I don't like overdubs, never liked them.

There's only X amount of time. You can do whatever you want with that time. It's your time.

The music business doesn't interest me anymore.

Music was what bothered me, what interested me.

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

That's why I survived because I still believe I've got something to say.

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

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

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

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

I'm too old to do things by half.

I can concentrate on my art.

Perfect Night has that magic and it has the raw energy that grabs you by the throat.

I think that everything happens for a reason, everything happens when it's going to happen.

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

One of my rules is: Never listen to your old stuff.

I always thought martial arts was the most modern choreography we could have right now, and I always wanted to put it to music.

I'm an artist and that means I can be as egotistical as I want to be.

How can anybody learn anything from an artwork when the piece of art only reflects the vanity of the artist and not reality?

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

I don't believe in dressing up reality.

I don't believe in using makeup to make things look smoother.

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

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.

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