Tom Petty Quotes

Gonna wind it up on my guitar. Gonna make that silver sing.

There was no use pretending, no magic left to hear, all the music gave me was a craving for lite beer.

It's funny how the music industry is enraged about the Internet and the way things are copied without being paid for. But you know why people steal the music? Because they can't afford the music.

I wouldn't want to get stuck being an oldie-goldie group, but I don't mind. I think all the trouble you go through these days to go to one of these concerts, I think I owe them a bit of what they came to hear.

When you get older, your health becomes important to you, things start breaking down, you've always got a different ache or pain.

We haven't always been boy scouts, but we never lost sight of the music, Let me remind you that this ain't the end.

What I've learned about marriage: You need to have each other's back; you have to be a kind of team going through life.

Where the sky begins, the horizon ends, despite the best intentions.

I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings. Coming down is the hardest thing.

I love history, doesn't matter what era, I'm fascinated.

I had the radio on, I was driving. Trees flew by, me and Del were singing, Little Runaway, I was flying.

She grew up hard and she grew up fast, in the age of television.

I'll stand my ground and I won't back down...

There's a freeway running through the yard.

I'm actually better on the guitar than when I started, I think, because I've had so much time with it and I still practice and I love to do it and I love to sing.

But not me, baby, I've got you to save me.

I've never had any idea that what I like would resonate with the audience, and I'm pleasantly surprised when it does.

I remember things being more clearer, at one time things were more real.

I'm certainly not a Robin Hood, I'm not that way. I don't want to come through, burn everybody for $200 a ticket and then they can't afford to come see me again. Plus, I just don't think it's right. I don't think we need that much money. I just do what seems like the logical thing to do.

The music business looks like, you know, innocent schoolboys compared to the TV business. They care about nothing but profit.

Making a record? You've got to have the song, then you create a record. I think it's the same with a live performance. If the material is strong, you're already 90% there. I always tell young people it's all about the music, the songs. Work on the songs, work on the songs, work on the songs.

Some grow young, some grow cold ...

Well, I started out down a dirty road Started out all alone And the sun went down as I crossed the hill And the town lit up, the world got still I'm learning to fly but I ain't got wings Coming down is the hardest thing Well, the good ol' days may not return And the rocks might melt and the sea may burn I'm learning to fly but I ain't got wings Coming down is the hardest thing Well, some say life will beat you down Break your heart, steal your crown So I've started out for God knows where I guess I'll know when I get there I'm learning to fly around the clouds But what goes up must come down

Do something you really like, and hopefully it pays the rent. As far as I'm concerned, that's success.

My mama was a rocker way back in fifty-three, buys them old records that they sell on TV.

I have never been comfortable being the front man.

There goes your freedom of choice, there goes the last human voice.

I've always had a great love for the blues.

I like a good beer. Of course, I'll drink a bad one too. Let no person thirst for lack of real ale! Thank god for long-necked bottles, the angel's remedy.

I like making money like anybody else, and I'm paid well, but I think there is a point at which you can out-price your audience or your base.

And the days went by like paper in the wind. Everything changed, then changed again. It's hard to find a friend. It's hard to find a friend.

I love the music. I'm never, ever tired of playing it.

The first time I tried to write was when I was 14, after I got an electric guitar. I put a song together, and it wasn't that bad! The writing came natural to me.

I don't treat the band like I'm above them or that they're a hired hand for me. We've never worked that way. So I'm a team player. I would be very uncomfortable having to do this alone.

Buy me a drink, sing me a song; take me as I come, cause I can't stay long.

At the end of the day, you're just phonograph records.

The poison came in liquid, she was naked all the time.

I'm old enough to have lived in a country where, if you were willing to work hard, you could have a fairly nice life. You could support your family, and even get a shot at owning your own home. But you never thought you'd get a swimming pool. Now culture has hypnotised people into thinking they're really nothing if they're not wealthy and a Kardashian.

He [George Harrison] told me he really, really admired John [Lennon]. He probably wanted John's acceptance pretty bad, you know?

He don't wanna change, what don't need to change.

You get into your late fifties, people start falling like flies all around you. I don't take life for granted any more. I'm really glad to be here.

If you're not getting older, you're dead.

When I was a kid, we didn't have any blues stations. I never heard Howlin' Wolf or Muddy Waters or any of those people until the Stones had come along, and I took it upon myself to find out who these people were that they were covering.

I never could have dreamed that her heart was so wicked, but I keep coming back because it's so hard to kick it.

Redemption comes to those who wait, forgiveness is the key.

There used to be this real sense of community integrity in rock. It has really eroded. Everyone seems to be on their own now.

Most magic is a trick, an illusion. But [when The Beatles played the Ed Sullivan Show], this was real. Man oh man, was it real.

Artists aren't necessarily business people. And they aren't necessarily aware of all the things that go on in their names. Some just want to make some music, but there is a lot of greed
among artists as well. Whether or not we know it, we are all to blame. I think it's time - starting with the artist - to try to be a little more responsible and aware of what goes on in our
name.

I'm barely prolific and incredibly lazy.

Take back your insurance, baby, nothing is guaranteed. Take back your acid rain, let your TV bleed.

You need eagles wings to get over things that make no sense in this world.

It's always been great to be onstage. It's really effortless up there. It's not a lot of work.

You will never be told when the next bit of education is coming or where it's coming from or who the teacher will be. That information will only reveal itself after the fact. All that you can do is leave a little room there for the next lesson to come through. Someone will be carrying it. You just leave the door open a crack.

If you don't run, you rust.

Oh yeah, alright, take it easy baby, make it last all night. She was an American Girl.

Running down a dream ... working on a mystery ... going wherever it leads ...

Way up in the nosebleeds we watched him on the screen, they'd hung between the billboards so cheaper seats could see.

You believe what you want to believe

When I decided to be a musician I reckoned that that was going to be the way of less profit, less money. I was sort of giving up the idea of making a lot of money. It was what I loved to do. I would have done it anyway. If I'd had to work at Taco Bell I'd have still been out at night trying to play music.

Bring me a girl, they're always the best. You put 'em on stage, and you have 'em undress.

Songwriting ability is a gift. After a while, you come to realize, "I've really been blessed. I can write these things and it makes me happy, and it makes millions of people happy." It's an obligation, it's bigger than you. It's the only true magic I know. It's not pulling a rabbit out of a hat; it's real. It's your soul floating out to theirs.

I started playing the bass because nobody else would play the bass, and then I got bumped up into singing because no one else really wanted to sing. So I learned how to sing and I wrote the songs, so I tended to get the most attention.

Most things I worry about never happen anyway.

A rebel without a clue.

I don't think it's a good attitude in your life to feel that you have to be rich to have self-esteem.

I'm not any happier anywhere than when I'm in the studio. I'm over the moon about it. It keeps me young, it keeps me feeling like I have some purpose.

Somewhere, somehow, somebody must have kicked you around some. Tell me, why you want to lay there, revel in your abandon?

I think that if people realize that with an mp3, you're only getting five percent of the sound that's there. But when you hear the entire thing ... I think it would save the music business. It's such a drastic change.

We could move catalog, if he'd only die quicker.

I'm so tired of being tired. Sure as night will follow day most things I worry about will never happen anyway.

I developed a problem with authority. Any time that authority was what I interpreted as being unjust, I stood up to it, and that became my personality.

The great thing about the Wilburys was that none of us had to take the heat by ourselves. I was just a member of the band. Nobody felt like he was above anybody else. We had such a good time.

Let's get to the point Let's roll another joint

Yeah, the world would swing if I were king.
Can I help it if I still dream time to time?

You're dealing in magic-it's this intangible thing that has to happen. And to seek it out too much might not be a good idea. Because, you know, it's very shy, too. But once you've got the essence of them, you can work songs and improve them. You see if there's a better word, or a better change.

As we celebrate mediocrity, all the boys upstairs want to see. How much you'll pay for what you used to get for free.

Every verse a diamond, every chorus gold, the sound was my salvation. It was only everything, before money became king.

No matter how long you play the guitar, there's always something else to learn.

Time to move on, time to get going. What lies ahead I have no way of knowing. But under my feet, baby, grass is growing.

I want to be successful. Not just money. Just making a successful record and a successful show. I could feel successful without selling a million records.

Gypsies at home watching Jerry Falwell on TV, might mean something to you, it ain't nothing to me.

I'm more interested in what I'm going to leave behind me than in making a big hit record. I've refined what I do for a long time. If getting better at it means it goes over the heads of those who only wanted to party, then so be it.

Yeah and it's over before you know it
It all goes by so fast
Yeah the bad nights take forever
And the good nights don't ever seem to last

most things I worry 'bout never happen anyway

It just seems to useless to have to work so hard, and nothing ever really seem to come from it.

You belong among the wildflowers You belong in a boat out at sea You belong with your love on your arm You belong somewhere you feel free

I always liked the idea of the guitar - because cowboys played the guitar.

We don't really make bad records, though some people might like some more than others. And we have never really done a bad show. So I think in a way maybe we've been taken for granted.

I'm not interested in the TV much. I quit watching the news a couple years ago and my outlook on life has gotten a whole lot better.

Go after what you really love and find a way to make that work for you, and then you'll be a happy person.

I don't believe in censorship, but I do believe that an artist has to take some moral responsibility for what he or she is putting out there.

Whatever you're looking for, don't come around here no more.

Free Falling
She's a good girl, loves her mama
Loves Jesus and America too
She's a good girl, crazy 'bout Elvis
Loves horses and her boyfriend too
It's a long day livin' in Reseda
There's a freeway runnin' through the yard
I'm a bad boy, 'cause I don't even miss her
I'm a bad boy for breakin' her heart
And I'm free, I'm free fallin'
All the vampires walkin' through the valley
Move west down Ventura Blvd
All the bad boys are standing in the shadows
All the good girls are home with broken hearts
And I'm free, I'm free fallin'
I wanna glide down over Mulholland
I wanna write her name in the sky
I wanna free fall out into nothin'
Gonna leave this world for a while
And I'm free, I'm free fallin

I always tell my kids, "Find something that you love and within that you'll find some job that you can do and you'll always be happy. You'll go to a job that you want to go to."

Lord, please watch over all these lost children born to chase the hurricane.

At twilight time the smog makes a rainbow.

Just wonderin', waitin', worryin' about some silly little things, that just don't add up to nothin'.

Music really isn't supposed to be perfect. It's all about people relating to each other and doing something that's really from the soul. It must come from the soul.

The waiting is the hardest part.

The waiting is the hardest part, every day you get one more yard. You take it on faith, you take it to the heart, the waiting is hardest part.