Dave Matthews Quotes

I think we have to be active in teaching our children, and teaching each other. We have to be active about kindness and about peace. I've always fantasized that it would be great if there was a Department of Peace. We have a military, but what if there was a department devoted entirely and truthfully to finding peaceful resolutions?

Move into kiss those sweet sugar lips, baby looks just like love.

Don't lose the dreams inside your head
They'll only be there until you're dead
Dream

Out of the darkness comes light like a flash
You think you can, you think you can
Sometimes that is the problem
Dream little darling dream

I found there's a fairly blatant racism in America that's already there, and I don't think I noticed it when I lived here as a kid. But when I went back to South Africa, and then it's sort of thrust in your face, and then came back here - I just see it everywhere.

You seek up a big monster for him to fight your wars for you.

I'm a bit of a caveman - I don't go out into the digital space very often. I lie facedown on the grass and count how many bugs I can find.

What I want is what I've not got, but what I need is all around me

Nothing is here to stay
Everything has to begin and end
A ship in a bottle won't sail
All we can do is dream that the wind will blow us across the water
A ship in a bottle set sail

What I want is what I've not got, and what I need is all around me."
Dave Matthews

To change the world, Start with one step. However small, the first step is hardest of all.

I don't feel like I'm standing in a position where I have some right above other people to say what I think. We should all be talking to each other about what we think is important - whether we're in politics, or whether we're checking out at a grocery store. We shouldn't put walls up between each other.

People are not very pro-active in general, I think, because we are too busy rushing blindly towards our own goals.

One sweet world Around this star is spinning One sweet world And in her breath I'm swimming And here we will rest in peace

Every day things change, but basically they stay the same

Good music is good music, and everything else can go to hell.

Take these chances Place them in a box until a quieter time Lights down, you up and die

I hope that just what I sing about and how I relate to my audience is as much of a political statement as I need to make.

Sitting still as stone watching - watching
People walking by you wondering why
No one ever stops to talk or thinks about it - if they ever did

Satellite in my eyes
Like a diamond in the sky
How I wonder
Satellite strung from the moon
And the world your balloon
Peeping Tom for the mother station

I see you young and soft oh little baby
Little feet, little hands, little baby
One year of crying and the words creep up inside
Creep into your mind
So much to say

My songs are like a three-legged dog - you have to get to know them to have any love for them.

Being able to scream at the top of my lungs in front of people is very therapeutic. It is a great gift for me to be able to do that.

The brightest star on a cloudless night
Some kind of miracle, almost empty sky ...
Just as the bite of the blade wakes the absent mind
There's time to dream and there's time to open your eyes

We look to our leaders once we elect them to either lead us in the right direction or at least not crush us.

I've never been much of a craftsman, in an educated way. But I think just the experience of writing makes the avenues I follow a little more efficient in some ways. At the same time, when you're young, you're a little more fearless, and there's less of an internal critic.

Isn't it strange how we move out lives for another day? Like skipping a beat, what if a great wave should wash us all away?

It is criminal to put our servicemen and women in harm's way and to put the lives of so many civilians on the line for the misguided frustrations of the Bush administration.

Wake up naked drinking coffee
Making plans to change the world
While the world is changing us
It was good good love
You used to laugh under the covers
Maybe not so often now
But the way I used to laugh with you
Was loud and hard

It's so hard for me to even acknowledge America without talking about race. If you look at our society, if you look at the prisons, if you look at the poverty and which side of the line the majority of people are, we have to acknowledge how we divide ourselves up, that there's racism alive in this country. And it's not in the law. It's in our minds. And that's what we have to actively battle.

I guess, and it may be a flaw, that I think about rhythm more [than anything else]. I'm always wanting to find something unusual. I've started to try and write more traditionally, but for whatever reason, I tend toward trying to find something that sounds more like a pattern to me.

Everyday should be a good day to die

If I go before I'm old, Oh brother of mine please don't forget me if I go. Bartender please, fill my glass for me? With the wine you gave Jesus that set him free, after three days in the ground.

Excuse me please, one more drink
Could you make it strong cause I don't need to think
She broke my heart, my grace is gone
One more drink and I'll move on.

I believe in love, but believe it's love that keeps beating me down.

Dark clouds may hang on me sometimes, but I'll work it out ...

South Africa gives me a perspective of what's real and what's not real. So I go back to South Africa to both lose myself and gain awareness of myself. Every time I go back, it doesn't take long for me to get caught into a very different thing. A very different sense of myself.

I say my hell is the closet I'm stuck inside.

For me, in songwriting, I have a route I can take. Maybe there's some forks, I can go this way, this way. But I know those roads. I still have the experience behind me.

The saddest part of the human race is we're obsessed with this idea of 'us and them,' which is really a no-win situation, whether it's racial, cultural, religious or political.

I find a therapy in playing music, in many different ways.

A lot of the time, I write a lot of angry stuff, but then I don't want to be a finger-pointer - I'd rather be a cheerleader than a judge. I don't want to preach as if I'm in some position of righteousness, but I do want to speak my mind and scream at the clouds and shout out of the pit of hopelessness that I sometimes think the human race is in.

If at all God's gaze falls upon us all it's with a mischievous grin, look at him.

I don't think socialism, and I don't think warmness and respect are necessarily bad words.

The moon is quite a show off given the chance. The stars make a sound when they shine so bright. Water so blue and so black.

Oh look at how she listens She says nothing of what she thinks She just goes stumbling through her memories Staring out on to Grey Street

You crush me with the things you do, I do for anything too ... each moment the more I love you.

Lying under this spell you cast on me Each moment The more I love you.

If I find something I like, I'll chase it and see what comes out the other side. Once a song gets momentum and gets away from you, that's a good sign.

Because life is short but sweet for certain We're climbing two by two To be sure these days continue These things we cannot change

For a moment this good time would never end
You and me
Just wasting time
I was kissing you
You were kissing me love
From good day into a moonlight

So the story goes, so I'm told
The people he knew were
Less than golden hearted
Gamblers and robbers
Drinkers and jokers, all soul searchers
Like you and me

Nothing is black or white, nothing's 'us or them.' But then there are magical, beautiful things in the world. There's incredible acts of kindness and bravery, and in the most unlikely places, and it gives you hope.

There's a freedom to being young that is harder to come by as time goes on.

You seek up an emotion and your cup is overflowing,
you seek up an emotion sometimes your well is dry

You and me have a better time than most can dream of, better than the best.

How could I have been anyone other than me?

So let us sleep outside tonight, Lay down in our mother's arms, for here we can rest safely.

Life goes on, end of tunnel, TV set
Spot in the middle
Static fade, statistic bit
And soon I fade away, fade away

If you've got a question just get in line
'Cause my intentions are to make you mine
I'll take care of everything
All you need, friend, is right here
... And if you're lost I will find your way
Give me your soul, friend, it's okay

I find sometimes it's easy to be myself, sometimes I find it's better to be somebody else.

Leave the big door open, everyone'll come around ...

Digging a ditch where madness gives a bit
Digging a ditch where silence lives
Digging a ditch for when I'm old
Digging this ditch my story's told
Where all these troubles weigh down on me will rise ...
Where all these questions spinning round my head will die

I'm a very vicious critic of myself.

I think I'm probably a very sad man wrapped in a very joyful package, and I think I'm very resilient, and I think I'm quite generous, sometimes to a fault. And I'm very bad with money, but I don't see that too much of a flaw.

I'm glad some people have that faith. I don't have that faith. If there is a God, a caring God, then we have to figure he's done an extraordinary job of making a very cruel world.

I grew up in a very politically aware family. My mother always taught me to question everything, never believing anything simply at face value - especially the nicest, most adamant politicians.

I feel that I have worked my whole life to get to the point where I should have a good understanding of women.

I don't want to die, obviously, but really, the wonder of life is amplified by the fact that it ends.

I don't believe in trickle-down economics. I don't think that people who have the most are inclined to share it, generally.

The problem is someone will try to convince you
That they know the answer no matter the question
Be wary of those who believe in a neat little world
'Cause it's just ... crazy - you know that it is

When I look at how fortunate I've been, being a musician ... my response to being overpaid is that I should pay it back to my community in some way.

Why won't you run in the rain and play, let the tears splash all over you?

We've never played at this place before. This place is big, and I'm kinda nervous, so we're going to make it feel small by pretending we're in a ... bedroom. We'll hang off the edge of the bed, take off our shoes and get naked!

I think we should all talk to our enemies and talk to our friends. Talk! That's the only way we'll find solutions.

We give the podium to a lot of people who shouldn't have the podium. The message that's delivered the loudest and in the most entertaining way is the one that we're going to put on because that's what we want. We want ratings more than we want to deliver information. That's just where the culture's gotten.

Don't burn the day away.

I do still get shocked every once in a while when I catch my reflection when I'm walking past a glass building, but it's in my mind about getting older and finding out what I'm going to look like as it unfolds - or as it folds, depending on where the marks and scars land.

Life it seems a struggle between what we think and what we see

San Francisco has a flowers-in-your-hair kind of vibe, while Chicago's got this very funny, big-city/small-town coolness to it.

I know I have a very unusual style of playing, where other more recognized and technically proficient players might look at me and wonder what the heck I'm doing. The purpose of my learning to play the way I do was more to accompany my singing. I figured out a style where I'm mentally playing the drums over a simple melody.

How we can stay faithful to the people that have supported us from the beginning is a thought in my mind. I always want to keep that part of it alive.

A friend is always good to have, but a lover's kiss is better than angels raining down on me.

My reaction to Radiohead isn't as simple as jealousy. Jealousy just burns; Radiohead infuriate me. But if it were only that, I wouldn't go back and listen to those records again and again. Listening to Radiohead makes me fell like I'm a Salieri to their Mozart. Yorke's lyrics make me want to give up. I could never in my wildest dreams find something as beautiful as they find for a single song - let alone album after album.

I fear that our true motivation is about oil and our own flailing economy; about the failure to destroy Al Qaeda and about revenge.

When I listen to my favorite songwriters, they have such simple melodies and chords. I occasionally manage to stop at the right time, but all too often I keep on going until I have way too many notes and words. But that's just what I do.

It's a melting pot, southern Africa. You find these cultural collisions that result in art and music, and it's pretty amazing.

When I write the set, I try to create something that will not only be interesting for the audience, but will have a flow for the band, too, so we don't get boring.

I was just wondering if you'd come along to hold up my head when my head won't hold on.

The melodies are always the most important part to me. I am pulled more to the groove than the chord progression. After you find the groove, you find the most simple chord progressions and then sit inside that groove.

Would you not like to be, sittin' on top of the world with your legs hanging free?

When I was a kid growing up in New York, I was pretty unaware of racism. I think when we're young - before we lose our innocence - we're sort of unaware of the more flawed qualities of each other.

I don't touch electric guitars. It's just not my thing - I stick with acoustic guitars only.

In so many areas of life, I'm a spaz and incompetent.

Are you looking for answers, to questions under the stars? If along the way you are growing weary, You can rest with me until a brighter day It's okay

The reason I play music is to touch people - for selfish reasons, as well. It feels good to make someone else feel something, whether it's a kiss, a painting, good idea or it's a song.

I think I am a very kind person. I think I'm joyful, but I could be kinder and I could be more joyful. I do believe peace is a state of grace, and not the absence of violence.

Love, you drive me to distraction.

I always like to have an atlas just so that I can find things out. It's always good to have an almanac; those sort of things.

Would you like to play With the thought of a friend In a distant passing stage While you lie around With your hands up and out So resigned you will fall down.