musician Quotes

I never thought a career as a musician was possible.

I never really thought of myself as a musician. I\'m not saying Sonic Youth was a conceptual-art project for me, but in a way, it was an extension of Warhol. Instead of making criticism about popular culture, as a lot of artists do, I worked within it to do something.

I don\'t view myself as a musician anymore - I view myself as a human being that functions as a musician when I\'m functioning as a musician, but that\'s not 24 hours a day. That\'s really opened me up to even more perspectives because now I look at music, not from the standpoint of being a musician, but from the standpoint of being a human being.

To my wife, I\'m not Herbie Hancock the musician. I\'m her husband. When I\'m talking to a neighbor, I\'m a neighbor. When I vote, I\'m a citizen.

You can\'t just be a musician; you have to be an entertainer and perform and act just to hit the bar.

A lot of people say, \'What\'s the worst part about being an actor?\' And the worst part is that you\'re not a musician.

I think Jerry Lee is sad. As a musician, he was far more talented than Elvis Presley. Everybody down in Memphis knows that. Elvis became a movie star because he was beautiful. Not that Elvis wasn\'t talented, but Jerry Lee Lewis was incomprehensibly talented as a musician.

I realized that I wanted to get better in every way. As a person, as a friend, as a songwriter, as a musician, as an artist, record producer, you name it.

I might respect you as a brilliant intellect, runner, musician or juggler. But respect your BELIEFS? Only if they\'re supported by evidence.

If you want to be a better musician, hang out with a computer coder.

When I was about 21 and just about to get out of college at NYU, Vietnam was raging, and I was a frustrated musician for a little bit.

Although I have guitars all around and I pick themm up occasionally and write a tune and make a record, I don\'t really see myself as a musician. It may seem a funny thing to say. It\'s just like, I write lyrics amd I make up songs, but I\'m not a great lyricist or songwriter or producer. It\'s when you put all these things together - that makes me.

I think of myself as a jungle musician because of my lack of formal training.

Although I have guitars all around, and I pick them up occasionally and write a tune and make a record, I don\'t really see myself as a musician. It may seem a funny thing to say. It\'s just like, I write lyrics, and I make up songs, but I\'m not a great lyricist or songwriter or producer. It\'s when you put all these things together - that makes me.

You gotta pick yourself up. Sometimes you just gotta do it over and over, but you gotta do it. You can\'t give up. I wouldn\'t give up. I didn\'t give up - or doubt myself - in becoming a successful musician with a successful band.

Every musician, their goal in life is to play music that people love, and I\'ve accomplished my goal. I was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and left that chapter of my life and those people in the past. Good and bad, I\'ve loved and am thankful for that chapter.

You may be perfect in playing the piano, and not be creative; you may play the piano most brilliantly, and not be a musician. You may be able to handle color, to put paint on canvas most cleverly, and not be a creative painter. You may create a face, an image out of a stone, because you have learned the technique, and not be a master creator. Creation comes first, not technique.

You know what you can gain when you sit down with the Moroccans. As a person and as a musician. That\'s how you grow.

Many people think of me as just a riff guitarist, but I think of myself in broader terms. As a musician I think my greatest achievement has been to create unexpected melodies and harmonies within a rock and roll framework. And as a producer I would like to be remembered as someone who was able to sustain a band of unquestionable individual talent, and push it to the forefront during its working career. I think I really captured the best of our output, growth, change and maturity on tape - the multifaceted gem that is Led Zeppelin.

Playing in my early bands, working as a studio musician, producing and going to art school was, in retrospect, my apprenticeship. I was learning and creating a solid foundation of ideas, but I wasn\'t really playing music.

Sound is everything to a musician.

Before I was a musician, I drew. The housing projects in Brooklyn weren\'t much of a canvas, people didn\'t know that I had it in me - but I actually went to an art and design high school.

When I was 12, I decided to become a musician. \'Physical Graffiti\' was the first album I ever owned.

When you\'re a musician and you come from a singing background, specifically one that focused a lot on a cappella music as I have, it\'s just a real joy to be around so many talented people and talented groups who have a passion for what they do.

When you write a play, you work out like a musician on a piece of music. You find all the rhythms and the melody and the harmonies and take them as they come.

I was a fairly good amateur musician, and I was an average professional. But the one thing I saw was that the big band business was fading. So I made an economic decision, and it turned out the best judgment I ever made in my life.

I\'ve always felt like an imposter, in the whole, as a musician.

If I wasn\'t a musician, I\'d take up the law. They are the rottenest, wealthiest people in America.

You don\'t have to be a good musician if you\'ve got certain computer skills.

I\'m quite an eclectic musician.