Nile Rodgers Quotes

I used to play flute and clarinet at school, and although I wasn't thinking about making a living or getting a pay cheque, I already knew I was going to play music all my life.

I only work with people I like.

I really do love pop. I understand songwriting, I understand the business, and I'm not stuck in any one particular time period.

I've never cancelled any public appearance, simply because that's what my life is; it's doing my work, and I never want to stop doing my work unless it becomes impossible for me to do it.

After waiting four long years since the Lost CHIC Tapes were recovered, I'm finally putting out our first record. I'm like a child waiting for Christmas morning.

I never wished my parents were normal, because they were unique, special and fabulous.

Music has to keep moving. But I was lucky. For me there was always something around the corner.

My responsibility is to the artist first. There's something that artists intrinsically know about their music and their fanbase that neither the record company nor the producer really knows.

I've been able to be a part of every movement in music over the last several decades. The only one that I haven't been involved in so much is hip-hop, which I chose not to be involved in because it felt like I would be what they called "perpetrating." It felt like hip-hop was so much of its own culture and that I was not part of that culture.

Any real record person knows that the number one most powerful marketing tool when it comes to music is repetition.

When I go on vacation, I take very few clothes and a whole lot of books. It's the most soothing thing in the world. Reading 'Moby-Dick' is like being in a time machine. I almost feel as excited as the first time I read it and I always find something new.

There's never been a song that I just wrote and tried to send to an artist.

I grew up in the era of the concept album. What I do now is pick up on singles, and they are their own complete stories; you don't necessarily have to hear the rest of the album because I don't think albums are created like that anymore. They get songs from all over the place.

I don't believe in the philosophy of stumbling across hit records.

The only person I have regrets about is Miles Davis. He and I had become good friends after we did a photo shoot, and coincidentally, we kept running into each other at parties and stuff. I regret not having written a hit for Miles Davis.

I grew as close to Madonna as I've ever been to a woman without being romantically involved.

Bands always call me when they are in need of a boost and I come in and put them back on top.

Nard and I thought it over and came up with some answers via 'band logic,' not to be confused with actual logic.

Art, well good art at least, takes you to a place you go during the experience of it, and then after you experience it you are different.

I think the hardest thing to overcome is judging yourself and being your own worst critic so to speak.

If something is worth doing, it's worth overdoing.

I was a fan of the Marx Brothers. One of them had this character where he pretended not to be able to talk, but then he wrote this autobiography called 'Harpo Speaks!' He wrote about how he quit school at nine years old to become a professional.

Almost all the producers I know and dig, like Quincy Jones or Brian Eno, are really musicians first. I'm a composer, an orchestrator, an arranger and a musician first. I know how to write and rewrite songs, and the genius is really in the rewriting.

I wouldn't know how to retire.

I'm a record producer and songwriter; I'm a problem-solver.

If I could live in one city and do every single thing I do there, I would choose Venice. You can't turn your head without seeing something amazing.

You can't be afraid until you have no other option but to be afraid.

There's been this strange irony to my whole life. All my original bandmates have died, when I was the most wild and most reckless of us all. But I'm still here.

I love Madonna! If you want to see the Madonna I know, just go on YouTube and you'll see those early interviews before the record came out. She was giddy and wonderful and giggly and happy and so excited looking towards the future.

Nobody under the sun was like Madonna. She was positive and clear and wholly dedicated to achieving everything that she's achieved.

I've been working since I was a child. I worked cutting lawns, delivering newspapers; I was a telephone salesperson; I was a guitar repairman.

My childhood was bittersweet in many ways. We moved around a lot. By the time I was 10, I had travelled thousands of miles, often on my own. My parents were like my friends, so it felt like I didn't really have parents at all. But in a crazy way that was very liberating. It forced me to be independent, maybe a leader, and certainly a survivor.

My career has been wacky and not at all normal. I've never had a manager, nobody gets jobs for me. I wind up working with artists that I meet.

Every record I have done was because I was a person's friend. The only time we did not continue to be friends was if the record did not become a hit. If it did, we became great friends.

In today's world, I probably would like to work with someone like Gaga,

I'm always swimming forward like a shark. You just keep going and you don't rest. I love waking up knowing that I have a problem to solve.

I'm always the last person in the world who would ever try to predict a trend.

Art is something that opens up and enhances your emotions and that's what I like to think I'm doing.

Artists don't come much cooler and well rounded than Lady Gaga. Love and respect.

Music is the one part of the entertainment business where you can't fool anybody into buying a record.

I've had insomnia since I was five years old. I just don't require much sleep. I'm never tired.