Brian Wilson Quotes

I think cursing is a bunch of malarkey.

I have to tell you that J.S. Bach was easily the greatest musical innovator in the history of the world. He was so advanced for his time. There's a spiritual depth to his music. You can listen to it and it's like meditation.

I hate those old falsettos, I really do, and it's embarrassing since I've grown up.

I listen to oldies but goodies stations, '60s and '70s music.

Surfing music is dead. It was just a summer craze for kids on the beach. I'm finished with it.

I'm doing good. I've had a slight nervous breakdown in the '60s. I got through that. And I got through the '70s. And I was in a doctor's program during the '80s and then I met Melinda and we've been together ever since. I've got a happy life.

There's no outdoing The Beatles.

The audiences in the U.K. like me more than in America.

All of the artists did such a beautiful job I can't thank them enough. I'm just honored that God Only Knows was chosen. God Only Knows is a very special song. An extremely spiritual song and one of the best I've ever written.

Beware the lollipop of mediocrity; lick it once and you'll suck forever.

I have an instinct for music, or a feeling about it, and I'll have my feelings guide my hands.

The idea of taking a song, envisioning the overall sound in my head and then bringing the arrangement to life in the studio ... well, that gives me satisfaction like nothing else ... My state of being has been elevated, because I've been exercising, writing songs ... No masterpiece ever came overnight. A person's masterpiece is something that you nurture along.

I believe that writers run out of material, I really do. I believe very strongly in the fact that when the natural time is up, writers actually do run out of material. To me it's black and white. When there's a song there's a song, when there's not there's not.

I approach my music-making as an art-form
something pure from the spirit to which I can add dynamics and marketable reality. Music is genuine and healthy and the stimulation I get from molding it and adding dynamics is like nothing else on earth.

I'm just a shy and retreating kind of person. Sometimes I get in a real talkative mood - but not very often.

I play piano all the time. I'm always at my piano, playing music.

The only reason I'd ever get a sex change operation is to see what it's like to be right all the time.

I think I'm a vocal genius, not a musical genius. I like background vocals. I consider myself a voice, not a singer. A voice is a sound, and singing is what you do with that sound.

I have stage fright every single concert I've ever done. I have at least four or five minutes of it. It's absolute living hell.

I get off on hearing other people's voices. I like voices: they're my favourite things on records.

First of all, I want people to understand that I'm here to create for them. To create music for people so they'll know that I'm a source of love. And they can depend on my name.

I consider myself to be a crusader of love. I try to spread love around the world as best I can because I know I have a handle on love.

If you're going to write a song, try to get together with a collaborator because it's better to write with collaborators.

Every now and then I hear voices in my head, but not very clear. I can't understand what they are saying. It's a mental illness. I have been diagnosed as a manic depressive.

There's nothing greater than a girl ... Well a kid, your daughter, but that's a girl too.

So it's 1976 and we're still riding on our past success. I mean I've gone on like that for I don't know how long.

I earned my famous name.

I sit and I write automatically. I don't really try to write. My subconscious mind takes over and writes the songs for me. Songs come very easily for me. When I'm inspired, it takes me 20 minutes to write a song.

I was very, very financially secure my whole life. I have been very lucky to say that.

I met Paul in 1967, Ringo in 1985, and I saw George Harrison in a nightclub somewhere in L. A. I never met John.

You don't really know what to believe until the Government denies it.

The keyboard is my whole life. My life is centered around either sitting at my keyboard or driving my car. Those are the two most important things, more than anything else. Being at my keyboard, it's the happiest time for me.

I like the piano - I'm always about 15 feet away from a piano.

You're called a genius by people, and then your whole life you become the part.

I think I need the demons in order to write, but the demons have gone. It bothers me a lot. I've tried and tried, but I just can't seem to find a melody.

What in the world is a hangover cure?

You know what? I'm not always in a positive, happy place. But I'm able to concentrate enough to come up with a really good song.

I wanted to emulate Bob Flanagan, the high voice in the 'Four Freshmen.' I wanted to sing high like he did.

The Beach Boys have always been a part of the '60s spectrum, with The Beatles and that kind of thing. They were a part of the music business like everyone else. And they did quite well as a singing group, and I finished a lot of good records, and I'm very proud of them.

I'm happy; I'm a happy person.

Chuck Norris has been known to throw a baseball 100 mph. I've been known to throw Chuck Norris 100 mph.

I meditate and I also think about meditation. Which is funny. I think about Maharishi, about just the idea of meditating. It gives me something.

The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Phil Spector. Those were my idols.

You know, Rolling Stones songs all sound kind of the same.

I'm not a genius. I'm just a hard-working guy.

Humor - it helps to make the vibe better - it loosens up the vibrations.

Politics goes in one ear and out the other. I don't even know the president's name for sure. That's how stupid I am.

You want to know my real pleasure? Food. I love chocolate. I can't get enough chocolate. I can't help it. But my biggest pleasure of all is exercise. I really get off on exercise.

If there's not love present, it's much, much harder to function. When there's love present, it's easier to deal with life.

Gershwin inspired me very much. The concept of 'That Lucky Old Sun' was inspired by 'Rhapsody in Blue' - not influenced, but inspired.

You know Chuck, Buddy, and Elvis paved the road. The roots are deep inside us, it's the rhythm in our soul.

People are part of my music. A lot of my songs are the result of emotional experiences, sadness, pain, joy, and exultation in nature and sunshine and so on ... like 'California Girls' which was a hymn to youth.