Neil Young Quotes

When I first tried out some hash, smoked some then. And I'll do it again, if only I had some cash. ~ Neil Young

There is some blogging jerk out there who feels he can generalize his way to validity. ~ Neil Young

I always try to get behind the guy steering the ship. That's the kind of guy I am. ~ Neil Young

Bad news is just an excuse. ~ Neil Young

Link Wray ... He was the beginning of Grunge, way before anybody you know. ~ Neil Young

I've always been a fan of melody and emotional melancholy, whether it was Rites of Spring or Tears for Fears or Neil Young. If I hear a song that has a sweet melody, I'm a sucker for it, whether it's Linkin Park or Little Richard. ~ Dave Grohl

I didn't really know what I was doing when I started. I just started writing songs. After two songs I just continued to explore it. ~ Neil Young

Welfare mothers make better lovers. ~ Neil Young

I've gotten to work with amazing people. I would say usually we get to a point before we get into the studio where there isn't that sense of anxiety or nervousness of who they are because I don't think it would be as productive in the studio if that was the case. But maybe meeting someone like Neil Young for the first time made me anxious. ~ Rick Rubin

I get into each thing I do, to the point where nothing else matters. I guess I'm an extremist. ~ Neil Young

Hate was just a legend
And war was never known
The people worked together
And they lifted many stones.
They carried them to the flatlands
And they died along the way
But they built up with their bare hands
What we still can't do today. ~ Neil Young

It's a robust time, probably the most fertile time for the underground and for revolution since Nixon. I'm not talking about political overthrow; I'm talking about just general cultural revolution. Bush has polarised the country and is creating this breeding ground for an opposition. In the next couple of months, they'll probably make it unpatriotic to be Democrat. It's pretty crazy. ~ Neil Young

I don't force it. If you don't have an idea and you don't hear anything going over and over in your head, don't sit down and try to write a song. You know, go mow the lawn ... My songs speak for themselves. ~ Neil Young

I am succeeding because people are talking about how they would do it better. ~ Neil Young

Sailing heart-ships through broken harbors out on the waves of the night, still the searcher must ride the dark horse racing alone in his fright. ~ Neil Young

I've seen the needle
And the damage done
A little part of it in everyone
But every junkie's
Like a settin' sun. ~ Neil Young

When the punk thing came along and I heard my friends saying, I hate these people with the pins in their ears. I said, Thank God, something got their attention. ~ Neil Young

Down by the river, I shot my baby dead. ~ Neil Young

I'm listening to Neil Young, I gotta turn up the sound. Someone's always yellin', 'Turn him down'."
"Highlands" from "Time Out of Mind" (1997) ~ Bob Dylan

It doesn't mean that much to me to mean that much to you. ~ Neil Young

Nothing is perfect in God's perfect plan. ~ Neil Young

The true martial artist yields to the weak, while withstanding the strong. ~ Neil Young

I identified with white culture, and I wanted to fit in. I didn't identify with black culture. Like, I didn't like Tyler Perry movies, and I wasn't into hip-hop music. I liked Neil Young. ~ Zoe Kravitz

It's the woman in you that makes you want to play this game. ~ Neil Young

Only love can break your heart. ~ Neil Young

It's stupid to expect perfection from bands because afterall they're just human beings. ~ Neil Young

As you go through life, you've got to see the valleys as well as the peaks. ~ Neil Young

Imagination is my best friend. ~ Neil Young

Don't think. The worst songs I've ever written happen when I think. ~ Neil Young

Back then people closed their eyes and listened to music. Today there's a lot of images that go with the music. A lot of music is crap and it's all commercial and the images are all trying to sell the record. ~ Neil Young

I just wrote one song at a time. Kinda like an alcoholic. One day at a time. ~ Neil Young

Learning from other people is what music is all about. ~ Neil Young

My life is not a political campaign. I just write about what is on my mind. I just play whatever I feel like playing. Whatever is in my soul at the time is what I want to do. I have, thank god, enough people who are still interested in what I am doing so that I can go out and keep doing it. ~ Neil Young

I want to live, I want to give, I've been a miner for a heart of gold. ~ Neil Young

I was raised in Topanga Canyon. It's an eclectic community up in the Santa Monica mountains. A lot of musicians lived there - Joni Mitchell, Neil Young - as well as artists and craftspeople. ~ Inara George

When people start asking you to do the same thing over and over again, that's when you know you're way too close to something that you don't want to be near. ~ Neil Young

In a Ramada Inn near the grapevine, they stop to rest for the night. Traveling down south, looking for good times. Visiting old friends feels right. ~ Neil Young

There's more to a picture than meets the eye. ~ Neil Young

The devil fools with the best laid plans. ~ Neil Young

The way in which the USA and Great Britain delivered Iraq to the Iraqis, the way and means that this played out, that is the endgame. ~ Neil Young

People who agree with you already agree with you
you don't change peoples minds. ~ Neil Young

Holding back is so close to stealing. ~ Neil Young

I get back in the Continental and continue down the road to the cafe. Then I pull in and there's Larry Johnson's '57 Ford pickup in the parking lot. As I enter the little cafe, I see Larry and Briggs in the corner, drinking some coffee and having a late breakfast. I go right over and sit down with them. We don't say much. David says something about Kirby getting a job at one of the studios. Kirby is very good with his hands and can fix anything, plus he has a very friendly personality. We are happy for him. Larry has to make a call and gets up, heading for the pay phone in the corner. He has us get him another coffee when the waitress comes back. Briggs looks at me and asks what I've been doing. ~ Neil Young

My whole life, I have listened to people like Neil Young, or Crosby, Stills & Nash, and artists that have made a career out of the mellow, folky, acoustic dynamic. ~ Dave Grohl

I love Neil Young. And he loves me! We have a great relationship. ~ Donald Trump

I feel like I could be likened to an old hound circling on a rug for the last five years. ~ Neil Young

The punches came fast and hard, lying on my back in the school yard. ~ Neil Young

It is better to burn out then fade away ~ Neil Young

I was just 20 years old when I wrote Broken Arrow. ~ Neil Young

You gotta keep changing. Shirts, old ladies, whatever. ~ Neil Young

You were born to rock, you'll never be an opera star. ~ Neil Young

We're very highly evolved, and we should be very responsible for what we've learned. ~ Neil Young

Steve Jobs was a digital pioneer, but when he went home, he listened to vinyl. ~ Neil Young

Hard working people stopping for a drink on the way to work. ~ Neil Young

Give a hippie too much money and anything can happen. ~ Neil Young

I got religion in the airport, my Lord. They caught me waiting on my baggage when I was bored. ~ Neil Young

You might notice I refer to my son Ben as Ben Young all the time. Larry (Johnson) always called his son Ben Johnson. I liked the pride with which he would say "Ben Johnson." It is a lingering memory of his great spirit. ~ Neil Young

Piracy is the new radio. ~ Neil Young

The thing about my music is, there really is no point. ~ Neil Young

My archive project is a multiedged sword. It is something I love doing, but it raises some questions about my motives in doing it. A writer accused me of building my archives just to further my own legend, whatever that is. I hope you don't believe that. What a shallow existence that would be! I remember reading that article saying that about me. It pissed me off. It's my life, and I am a collector. I collect everything: cars, trains, manuscripts, photographs, tape recordings, records, memories and clothes, to name a few. The fact that I want to create a chronological history of my recordings and supporting work is proof positive that I am an incurable collector, confronted with an amazingly detailed array of creations that I have painstakingly rat-holed over the years. ~ Neil Young

I was not doing what I was told to do. And they sued me for making music "uncharacteristic of Neil Young." That was Geffen Rocords' biggeest mistake, I think. The mistakes all started when I caved and didn't give them Island in the Sun. They wanted me to be commercially successful, and I wanted to be an artist expressing myself-those two goals are not always compatible. I was expecting to have the same artistic freedom that I had at Asylum Records, but Geffen Records wanted me to be a smash, selling millions of records. Most important, Geffen was not a hands-on at Geffen Records. He had other people doing that. It showed. ~ Neil Young

As soon as you start preaching, nobody wants to hear you because then you're a jerk. ~ Neil Young

If I could go back in time and see any band, It would be Link Wray and the Raymen. ~ Neil Young

Neil Young is the prime example, the grand goal, if you will. He's still shredding, and he never lost his credibility. ~ Mac DeMarco

I'm free to give my love, but you're not the one I'm thinking of. ~ Neil Young

There was a band playing in my head, And I felt like getting high ~ Neil Young

The people who review my books, generally, are kind of youngish culture writers who aspire to write books, or write opinion pieces about what they think of Neil Young, or why they quit watching ER or whatever. And because of that, I think there's a lot of people who write about my books with the premise of, "Why this guy? Why not me?" ~ Chuck Klosterman

I listen to Neil Young and jazz and classical stations and, if my girlfriend's driving, it tends to be Hall & Oates. ~ Frank Black

For whatever you're doing, for your creative juices, your geography's got a hell of a lot to do with it. You really have to be in a good place, and then you have to be either on your way there or on your way from there. ~ Neil Young

Car radios blared in the night, generally pitting a gang in favor of Neil Young's "Southern Man," which chastised the South for its flagrant racism, against those who preferred Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama," which chastised Neil Young for chastising the South and which praised the blatantly racist Alabama governor George Wallace. ~ Brent Hendricks

When the album was done I loved it. It was a mixture of electric and acoustic solo performances with dubs. I called it Le Noise, after Dan. It was a French Canadian joke, a very English was of saying Lanois. I was doing a show that introduced a lot of the songs, and things were going great. I was very happy. ~ Neil Young

I never knew a man could tell so many lies, he had a different story for every set of eyes. How can he remember who he's talking to? ~ Neil Young

Long, flat expanses of professionalism bother me. I'd rather have a band that could explode at any time. ~ Neil Young

Hey, hey, my, my, rock and roll will never die. ~ Neil Young

Farm Aid was started in 1985 by Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews as a concert to support small local farms in the U.S. ~ Rebecca Pidgeon

I've always been better moving than I am standing still. ~ Neil Young

It's better to burn out than it is to rust. ~ Neil Young

It's gotta be fun, if it's not fun it's not worth doing. Music is about having a good time feeling your soul, whether it makes you laugh or it makes you cry, just so long as you feel as much as you can. That's the mission of Pono. ~ Neil Young

Rock and roll is here to stay. ~ Neil Young

In the end, the record companies have the power to control the quality that is served online. Online service has been problematic in that it actively or discreetly promotes trading and duplication of music. It is not offensive to me that the MP3-quaility sound is traded around. It is, in my opinion, the new radio and serves a great purpose: making music lovers away of the content tat is out there to buy. If the consumers want it, let tham take it, whatever quality they prefer. Ultimately, nothing can stop absolute quality from making a big comeback. The stage is well set. I believe in what I am trying to do and that good Karma will come from it.
It is just a matter of time. ~ Neil Young

I think in some ways - only in some ways - but in some ways, rock and roll has let me down. It really doesn't leave you a way to grow old gracefully and continue to work. ~ Neil Young

We don't build a record. We're taking a picture of it. We're not building an image; we're capturing an image. ~ Neil Young

Be great or be gone ~ David Briggs

Having no knowledge is sometimes exactly what is needed to find a solution, so I qualified. ~ Neil Young

Faith builds the bridge from this old world to the new. ~ Neil Young

I see country music, I see people who take care of their own. You've got 75 year-old guys on the road. That's what I was put here to do, y'know, so I wanna make sure I surround myself with people who are gonna take care of me. 'Cause I'm in it for the long run. ~ Neil Young

Faith is not reason's labour, but repose. ~ Neil Young

Remember when you used to watch TV in the Sixties and you'd see Perry Como in a cashmere sweater? That's what rock 'n' roll is becoming. It's your parents' music. ~ Neil Young

I don't drink anymore myself, I'm moving on. And that's not to say I won't drink again. I'm not making any promises, but I don't think I was a great drinker. Some folks are great drinkers; they drink and tell jokes and laugh their asses off, and they are funny as hell. We buried one of those last week. Life is just a big test, and if you try hard, you fail. If you don't try too hard and fail a little but have a good time, maybe that is success. ~ Neil Young

Life everywhere is affected by these fires. Residents of Malibu have brought their animals to the beaches for safety, shelter and companionship...
California is a paradise for all. A gift. We are sad to not be able to defend it against Mother Nature's wrath. We love California. We are not ill-prepared. We are up against something bigger than we have ever seen. It's too big for some to see at all. Firefighters have never seen anything like this in their lives. I have heard that said countless times in the past two days, and I have lost my home before to a California fire, now another.
Hopefully we can come together to take Climate Change on. We have the tools and could do it if we tried. There is no downside...
- more at neil young archives website ~ Neil Young

I'd actually like to make a country album one day. One of my idols is Neil Young, because he's kept himself from being bored. ~ Art Alexakis

My songs are like cheap Neil Young copies. ~ Randy Bachman

I don't think there is one president that's come down the line that hasn't done something good somewhere. ~ Neil Young

My main influences are pop and folk music - Bob Lind, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, the Motown collection, The Zombies, Elliott Smith, and a ton of 70's AM radio hits. I love powerpop too. ~ Greta Salpeter

As soon as you start talking about mystique, you have none. ~ Neil Young

Went looking for faith on the forest floor, and it showed up everywhere. In the sun, and the water, and the falling leaves, the falling leaves of time. ~ Neil Young

I remember the Neil Young brand hitting me very hard immediately. He wasn't an acquired taste. I loved him immediately. ~ Jonathan Demme

A lot of people that buy vinyl today don't realise that they're listening to CD masters on vinyl and that's because the record companies have figured out that people want vinyl, And they're only making CD masters in digital, so all the new products that come out on vinyl are actually CDs on vinyl, which is really nothing but a fashion statement. ~ Neil Young

I've had mentors who were kind of the troubadour singer-songwriters, like Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and Neil Young, and that's just what I've always liked - people who would talk real honestly about their lives and their circumstance. ~ Jewel

Rock and Roll can never die. ~ Neil Young