110+ Neil Young Quotes On Freedom, Folk And Rock

Neil Young is a Canadian musician, singer-songwriter, and film director. He is one of the most successful and influential musicians of his generation, with a career spanning over 50 years. His musical style has varied greatly over the years, from folk and rock to country and electronic music. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Neil Young on life, freedom, folk.

Top 10 Neil Young Quotes

1. Now I'm livin' out here on the beach, but those seagulls are still out of reach.
2. With Crazy Horse, it's all one big, growing, smoldering sound, and I'm part of it. It's like gliding, or some sort of natural surfing.
3. It's going to take a lot of love to make things work out right.
4. Remember when you used to watch TV in the Sixties and you'd see Perry Como in a cashmere sweater? That's what rock 'n' roll is becoming. It's your parents' music.
5. I look at radio as gone … Piracy is the new radio, that’s how music gets around.
6. Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle for where we're going. There's something ahead worth fighting for.
7. Look at mother nature on the run in the 1970's.
8. My my, hey hey... Rock and roll is here to stay. Hey hey, my my... Rock and roll will never die.
9. I've always been better moving than I am standing still.
10. Of course you have to support the troops. They're just kids. They're doing for their country what's expected of them.

Neil Young Short Quotes

• If you wanna write a song, ask a guitar
• Steve Jobs was a digital pioneer, but when he went home, he listened to vinyl.
• Respect Mother Earth and her giving ways or trade away our children's days.
• I want to live, I want to give, I've been a miner for a heart of gold.
• I feel like I could be likened to an old hound circling on a rug for the last five years.
• Cocaine eyes won't hide your face.
• It's a cold bowl of chili when love lets you down.
• The devil fools with the best laid plans.
• Holding back is so close to stealing.
• Learning from other people is what music is all about.

Neil Young Quotes About Life

As you go through life, you've got to see the valleys as well as the peaks. — Neil Young

My life is not a political campaign. I just write about what is on my mind. I just play whatever I feel like playing. Whatever is in my soul at the time is what I want to do. I have, thank god, enough people who are still interested in what I am doing so that I can go out and keep doing it. — Neil Young

Old man take a look at my life, I'm a lot like you were. — Neil Young

All I'm doing is writing it down and putting it in a cadence. Once I get into a cadence, then why should I even stop and wonder what it is? You can do that for the rest of your life, but when it's coming out, you don't want to stop it. — Neil Young

With a lot of songs on this record, one verse doesn't relate to the next verse. I don't think that one day really relates to the next day in life. — Neil Young

In my life I have had various health threats: polio, seizures, a brain aneurysm. None of these things has really changed me much, although it is hard to say for sure. These are events that are part of my life. They make me who I am. I am thankful for them. They are scary. — Neil Young

Neil Young Quotes About Freedom

Without freedom of expression, good taste means nothing. — Neil Young

Freedom of choice is meaningless without knowledge. That's why it's crucial we all get engaged and get informed. — Neil Young

Freedom is an abstract offshoot. You can't describe freedom. How can you describe it? I tried and I failed. — Neil Young

Mothers need to know what they are feeding their children. They need the freedom to make educated choices at the market. — Neil Young

To protect our freedoms, it seems we're going to have to relinquish some of our freedoms for a short period of time. — Neil Young

Music lovers always want to hear the best. It's about freedom of choice, we supply the music. — Neil Young

Neil Young Quotes About Rock

Ten silver saxes, a bass with a bow The drummer relaxes and waits between shows For his cinnamon girl. — Neil Young

Rock and roll is here to stay. — Neil Young

The cutthroat avenues of rock 'n' roll, I am fed up with. I don't want anything to do with it. — Neil Young

Standing Rock is a moment in history. We really have to grab it and go with it. — Neil Young

You were born to rock, you'll never be an opera star. — Neil Young

My music isn't anything but me. It has jazz in it, and rock'n'roll, and it has an urgency to it. — Neil Young

There's an edge to real rock 'n' roll. It's all that matters. — Neil Young

I think in some ways - only in some ways - but in some ways, rock and roll has let me down. It really doesn't leave you a way to grow old gracefully and continue to work. — Neil Young

Ain't singing for Pepsi, ain't singing for Coke, I don't sing for nobody, makes me look like a joke. — Neil Young

Neil Young Quotes About Burn

It's better to burn out, than to fade away. — Neil Young

I love it when people yell at me about the environment and then I tell 'em I'm burning 90% cleaner than them. — Neil Young

It is better to burn out then fade away — Neil Young

Better to burn out than rust out. — Neil Young

Southern change gonna come at last! Now your crosses are burning fast, Southern Man. — Neil Young

It was then I knew I'd had enough, Burned my credit card for fuel Headed out to where the pavement turns to sand With a one-way ticket to the land of truth And my suitcase in my hand — Neil Young

Don't let it bring you down. It's only castles burning, find someone who's turning, and you will come around. — Neil Young

Neil Young Quotes About Work

I think [song 'Can't Stop Workin'] it's the constant work; performing and traveling. It gets to be a bit of a strain. But if you pace yourself, which I've managed to do, you can go pretty well. — Neil Young

I totally have no other talent and I would be totally out of work if I did anything else. — Neil Young

Hate was just a legend and war was never known. The people worked together and they lifted many stones. — Neil Young

It's the way I like to work for these kinds of songs [like "Peace Trail"]. It was the right time of the month; everything was looking good. — Neil Young

Hard working people stopping for a drink on the way to work. — Neil Young

It's cool to go places where working people are happy. — Neil Young

Now I'm at a point where I decided I'm going to be in the studio for a while, at least until I finish this record I'm working on now. I should have two, three, four of the sessions that I had that were similar to the sessions for Peace Trail before I have a complete record. — Neil Young

Neil Young Famous Quotes And Sayings

For whatever you're doing, for your creative juices, your geography's got a hell of a lot to do with it. You really have to be in a good place, and then you have to be either on your way there or on your way from there. — Neil Young

One good thing about the past is that you can't change it. So there's no reason to go back. It's there. It is what it is. The only thing you can change is right now and what's happening next. — Neil Young

I'm not waiting for times to change I want to live like a free-roaming soul on the highway of our love. — Neil Young

There is a town in north Ontario, With dream comfort memory to spare, And in my mind I still need a place to go, All my changes were there. Blue, blue windows behind the stars, Yellow moon on the rise, Big birds flying across the sky, Throwing shadows on our eyes. — Neil Young

Listen to your own voice. Don't listen to someone else's. To me the way to live is to always move forward - to keep searching for whatever it is that interests you. — Neil Young

I live for playing live. All my records are live, since After the Gold Rush, with the exception of Trans and the vocals on Landing on Water. — Neil Young

It doesn't affect me because I look at the internet as the new radio. I look at the radio as gone. [...] Piracy is the new radio. That's how music gets around. [...] That's the radio. If you really want to hear it, let's make it available, let them hear it, let them hear the 95 percent of it. — Neil Young

I dreamed I saw the silver spaceships flying in the yellow haze of the sun. There were children crying and colors flying all around the chosen ones. — Neil Young

The '60s was one of the first times the power of music was used by a generation to bind them together. — Neil Young

You have to be ready to give everything you have, and you have to make sure you've really got a lot to give. Because if ... you're not ready to give everything you have, ... then you're nothin'. — Neil Young

I don't like the current political system in the USA and some other countries. Increasingly democracy has been hijacked by corporate interests. — Neil Young

A little love and affection in everything you do will make the world a better place with or without you. — Neil Young

I don't force it. If you don't have an idea and you don't hear anything going over and over in your head, don't sit down and try to write a song. You know, go mow the lawn...My songs speak for themselves. — Neil Young

The true martial artist yields to the weak, while withstanding the strong. — Neil Young

What's female beauty, but an air divine, thro' which the mind's all gentle graces shine? They, like the sun, irradiate all between; the body charms because the soul is seen. — Neil Young

The rockets and the satellites, spaceships that we're creating now, we're pollinating the universe. — Neil Young

Corporations don't have children. They don't have feelings or souls. They don't depend on uncontaminated water, clean air, or healthy food to survive. They are beholden to one thing - the bottom line. — Neil Young

Love is a rose But you better not pick it. It only grows When it's on the vine. Handful of thorns And you'll know you missed it. You lose your love When you say the word MINE. — Neil Young

All these people talking about morality should just take a walk downtown. They don't want to go downtown because instantly they see homeless people and they don't want to. — Neil Young

Most people think it's the other way around: that time is going faster and we're doing less. But really time seems to be going faster because we're cramming so much into it. — Neil Young

The money needed to run for office, the money spent on lobbying by special interests, the ever increasing economic disparity and the well-funded legislative decisions all favour corporate interests over the people's. — Neil Young

Live music is better. — Neil Young

I just wrote one song at a time. Kinda like an alcoholic. One day at a time. — Neil Young

I don't look at a knife the way I used to. I'm more aware of what it is. I think twice. This is a key finger. It's in every chord. — Neil Young

I see country music, I see people who take care of their own. You've got 75 year-old guys on the road. That's what I was put here to do, y'know, so I wanna make sure I surround myself with people who are gonna take care of me. 'Cause I'm in it for the long run. — Neil Young

I don't know if I'll find the cinnamon girl. I think I already did, but I'm still singing, who knows. — Neil Young

Crazy friends provide for crazy times, and such crazy times we're had. — Neil Young

Back then people closed their eyes and listened to music. Today there's a lot of images that go with the music. A lot of music is crap and it's all commercial and the images are all trying to sell the record. — Neil Young

There was a band playing in my head, And I felt like getting high — Neil Young

I have so many opinions about everything it just comes out during my music. It's a battle for me. I try not to be preachy. That's a real danger. — Neil Young

When people start asking you to do the same thing over and over again, that's when you know you're way too close to something that you don't want to be near. — Neil Young

Lust comes creeping through the night to feed on hearts of suburban wives who learned to pretend when they met their dreams end. — Neil Young

I've seen the needle And the damage done A little part of it in everyone But every junkie's Like a settin' sun. — Neil Young

It's injustice. It's wrong. [The pipeline companies] didn't get the permission. They didn't do the things they should have done in the first place. They tried to just bully their way through there and they got stopped. But they're not really stopping. — Neil Young

Sailing heart-ships through broken harbors out on the waves of the night, still the searcher must ride the dark horse racing alone in his fright. — Neil Young

I don't have to perform to stay in the public eye anymore. I really don't. I am who I am and what I do on musical stage these days really makes no difference at all. I already have all the momentum there. I am only doing it because I love to do it. — Neil Young

I don't like war. I particularly don't like the celebration of war, which I think the administration is a little bit guilty of. — Neil Young

I don't like the American media - particularly Fox. — Neil Young

Think I'll roll another number for the road — Neil Young

A young man of pleasure is a man of pains. — Neil Young

I do not trust self serving misinformation coming from corporations and their media trolls. I do not trust politicians who are taking millions from those corporations either. I trust people. So I make my music for people not for candidates. — Neil Young

Long, flat expanses of professionalism bother me. I'd rather have a band that could explode at any time. — Neil Young

Keep it moving. Don't hoard. Money's no good, get rid of it. Turn it into people doing things. Turn it into jobs. Turn it into happiness...The more people I employ, the happier I am - that means my money's goin' into other people's lives, and if I can give 'em something to create that they can be happy with, that's great. — Neil Young

It's a blue album, but it's not a blues album. I'm not pretending all of a sudden now I'm blues. — Neil Young

I'm not into organized religion. I'm into believing in a higher source of creation, realizing we're all just part of nature. — Neil Young

This thing called Patriot Act, through which we abdicated a lot of our civil rights to defend the country against terrorism, it's a four-year story. — Neil Young

We had the Vietnam War in the '60s, and there was a draft. The students didn't believe in it, and it unified them. — Neil Young

And as an afterthought, this too must be told: Some people have taken pure bullshit and turned it into gold. — Neil Young

I started writing "Peace Trail" here in Colorado, then I went back to California. I had a few other tunes going around in my head, so I had a couple of them finished after a few days and then I wanted to go into the studio. — Neil Young

When the punk thing came along and I heard my friends saying, I hate these people with the pins in their ears. I said, Thank God, something got their attention. — Neil Young

I have no idea who's steering, and I don't really care .. I just keep going whatever the inclination is ... there are threads that are continuous and hold everything together and a major thread is country music. — Neil Young

Every wave is new until it breaks. — Neil Young

It's easy to get buried in the past when you try to make a good thing last. — Neil Young

Studios are passe for me. I'd rather play in a garage, in a truck, or a rehearsal hall, a club, or a basement. — Neil Young

I got religion in the airport, my Lord. They caught me waiting on my baggage when I was bored. — Neil Young

Nothing is perfect in God's perfect plan. — Neil Young

Mother Goose, she's on the skids. Sure ain't happy, neither are the kids. — Neil Young

As soon as you start talking about mystique, you have none. — Neil Young

You are like a hurricane, there's calm in your eyes, and I'm getting blown away. — Neil Young

Link Wray... He was the beginning of Grunge, way before anybody you know. — Neil Young

Went looking for faith on the forest floor, and it showed up everywhere. In the sun, and the water, and the falling leaves, the falling leaves of time. — Neil Young

Being sued by your own record company, that's even better than receiving a Grammy — Neil Young

This old world keeps spinnin’ round; It’s a wonder tall trees ain’t layin’ down. — Neil Young

I see a woman in the night with a baby in her hand, under an old street light near a garbage can. — Neil Young

I called the guys from Promise of the Real, whom I've been playing with, and they were all on the road. Right after I hung up the phone, I wrote another song and started writing another, and I'm going, "Hey, I can't wait. I should be doing this now!" My experience tells me that when it's there, it's there, and you can't make it wait. So I got Jimmy Keltner and Paul Bushnell, two good guys, and went in and did this record ["Peace Trail"]. — Neil Young

I get into each thing I do, to the point where nothing else matters. I guess I'm an extremist. — Neil Young

We have to understand that people are different. I don't know, if we really understand who we're dealing with over there. — Neil Young

Did He give me the gift of love to say who I could choose? When God made me did He give me the gift of voice so some could silence me? Did he give me the gift of vision not knowing what I might see? Did he give me the gift of compassion to help my fellow man? — Neil Young

I can get away with saying a lot of ideas that are young and naive. I'm liberated. — Neil Young

We're very highly evolved, and we should be very responsible for what we've learned. — Neil Young

Possessions and concessions are not often what they seem, they drag you down and load you down in disguise of security. — Neil Young

Our educational system basically strives for normal-which is too bad. Sometimes the exceptional is classified as abnormal and pushed aside. — Neil Young

And you can't get away from a mirror if you stand in front of it all the time, right. But if you step away from it, you don't notice it any more. And that's what the stage is like for me. See, an image becomes meaningless in as much as it's always temporary. — Neil Young

Life Lessons by Neil Young

1. Neil Young's life and music can teach us to stay true to ourselves and our passions, no matter what life throws at us.
2. He has shown us that it is possible to overcome adversity and remain creative and successful in the face of it.
3. His music encourages us to never give up, to keep striving for our dreams, and to never lose our hope and optimism.