Van Morrison Quotes

When all the dark clouds roll away And the sun begins to shine I see my freedom from across the way And it comes right in on time Well it shines so bright and it gives so much light And it comes from the sky above Makes me feel so free makes me feel like me And lights my life with love. ~ Van Morrison

You can't stop us on the road to freedom, you can't stop us cause our eyes can see. ~ Van Morrison

I have seen without perceiving I have been another man Let me pierce the realm of glamour So I know just what I am. ~ Van Morrison

I'm not a rock singer and I don't want to be a rock singer. I'm not interested. It doesn't seem to get across. ~ Van Morrison

When you hear the music ringin' in your soul
And you feel it in your heart and it grows and grows
And it comes from the backstreet rock & roll and the healing has begun ~ Van Morrison

Into the Music was about the first album where I felt, 'I'm starting here' ... the Wavelength thing, I didn't really feel that was me. ~ Van Morrison

I'm such a copycat."I want to try and do this like the Donovan song 'Changes'," or "I want to do this bit from Van Morrison." I don't know how else to illustrate something, because I'm not a super-great musician. In that way, I'm more like the producer. ~ Eleanor Friedberger

I am a child of the '70s, so I love classic rock - Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Van Morrison, and I also love Coldplay. ~ Rachel Zoe

Way over on the railroad, Tomorrow all the tipping trucks will unload together, Every scrapbook stuck with glue, And I'll stand beside you, Beside you, child. ~ Van Morrison

I learned from Van Morrison and BB King that the first take is the best. It's about capturing a moment. It's the same as love's first kiss. If you try to do it again, it doesn't work so well. ~ Jools Holland

My thinking musically has always been more advanced - it is difficult to get it down onto paper sometimes, even now. ~ Van Morrison

Just recently I worked with Van Morrison and I came to realize that money can't make a decent human being out of you. ~ Jim Sullivan

Well, it's a marvelous night for a Moondance
With the stars up above in your eyes ...
And I'm trying to please to the calling
Of your heart-strings that they play soft and low
And all the night's magic seems to whisper and hush
And all the soft moonlight seems to shine in your blush ...
One more Moondance with you in the moonlight
On a magic night ~ Van Morrison

Common one, my illuminated one, oh my high in the art of suffering. Take a walk with me. ~ Van Morrison

In the gentle evening freeze, by the whispering shady trees I will find sanctuary in the Lord. ~ Van Morrison

You learn to read the audiences after a while, and there are all different kinds of gigs. ~ Van Morrison

The talked about their messed-up, dysfunctional families, carefully respecting boundaries, never probing too deep in any one sitting. And they always ended up laughing. Even when the subject matter was intense or macabre, Henry's sick and twisted and often politically incorrect sense of humor was infectious ... Gloria laughed more in these first weeks at Oxford then she remembered laughing almost anywhere. ~ Andrea Kayne Kaufman

Let go into the Mystery, let yourself go. You've got to open up your heart, that's all I know. Trust what I say and do what you're told, and baby, all your dirt will turn into gold. ~ Van Morrison

Even today, skiffle is a defining part of my music. If I get the opportunity to just have a jam, skiffle is what I love to play. ~ Van Morrison

I shall drive my chariot down your street and cry hey it's me. ~ Van Morrison

I think Paul McGuinness and U2 created the Irish music industry. It certainly wasn't there before that. ~ Van Morrison

If you're a pop singer, you don't need to evolve. You just get a set together, have some hit songs and play them over and over. ~ Van Morrison

The blues - there's no black and white - it's the truth. ~ Van Morrison

As a developing musician, skiffle became a platform for me to start playing music. ~ Van Morrison

No guru, no method, no teacher, just you and I and nature, and the father in the garden. ~ Van Morrison

There's always stress involved in any genre or art form, there's always going to be a struggle. If there's no struggle, you wouldn't do anything. What are you going do? Retire? ~ Van Morrison

Let your soul and spirit fly. ~ Van Morrison

Sometimes, when the spirit moves me I can do many wondrous things I wanna know when the spirit moves you Did ye get healed? ~ Van Morrison

A lot of people who were writing when I came through originally as a singer-songwriter have disappeared. ~ Van Morrison

I don't think nostalgia has to be negative. ~ Van Morrison

Way across the country where the hillside mountains glide, the dynamo of your smile caressed the barefoot virgin child. ~ Van Morrison

Illusions and pipe dreams on the one hand
And straight reality is always cold ~ Van Morrison

It's all complete instinct and intuition, and that's extremely difficult to teach. ~ Van Morrison

Enlightenment says the world is nothing Nothing but a dream, everything's an illusion And nothing is real. ~ Van Morrison

Music is spiritual. The music business is not. ~ Van Morrison

When heart is open, you will change just like a flower slowly opening. ~ Van Morrison

I don't know much about contemporary music. I do have an iPod but I listen to a lot of old blues. I listen to John Lee Hooker and Elmore James. I have been listening to them for years. I was obsessed with Van Morrison for years. I went to see him recently where he performed Astral Weeks. I just spent the entire night crying, but I was really obsessed with Van Morrison. ~ Robert Pattinson

Van Morrison remains a singer who can be compared to no other in the history of modern popular music. ~ Greil Marcus

If my heart could do my thinking, would my brain begin to feel? ~ Van Morrison

You have to remember that writing those sorta songs is not reality, it's more like trance, dream, y'know, like dreamwork. The mythical thing can enter the creating but there's the mythical place and the real place. And there's both ... I get it between waking and sleeping. Or, when I'm doing something else. I don't sit down and think I'm gonna write about subject X or subject Y. I could be doing something and an impression comes in from outside and the song emerges out of that. It's never thought about or contrived. ~ Van Morrison

I deliberately try not to cater for the commercial market, so I can't see myself in competition, you know, with second or third generation rock stars. ~ Van Morrison

Being famous was extremely disappointing for me. When I became famous it was a complete drag and it is still a complete drag. ~ Van Morrison

I am about the arrangements and the layers of depth in the music. ~ Van Morrison

These days politics, religion, media seem to get all mixed up. Television became the new religion a long time back and the media has taken over. ~ Van Morrison

It's a marvelous night for a moondance! ~ Van Morrison

Won't You guide me through the dark night of the soul That I may better understand Your way ... Let me purify my thoughts and words and deeds That I may be a vehicle for Thee ... Give me my rapture today. ~ Van Morrison

Let me purify my thoughts and words and deeds that I may be a vehicle for thee. ~ Van Morrison

If you don't start with crazy, crazy love, the kind of love that Van Morrison sings about, then you don't have a shot to go the distance. Love's a marathon, Danny, not a sprint. ~ Caroline Kepnes

Laying underneath the stars Can be so much fun Especially when you're feeling good When you're with the one you love. ~ Van Morrison

Making love in the green grass behind the stadium with you my brown eyed girl. ~ Van Morrison

When it's not always raining there'll be days like this. When there's no one complaining there'll be days like this. When everything falls into place like the flick of a switch. Well my mama told me there'll be days like this. ~ Van Morrison

She's as sweet as tupelo honey,
She's an angel of the first degree.

- Tupelo Honey ~ Van Morrison

There is no black-and-white situation. It's all part of life. Highs, lows, middles. ~ Van Morrison

The days are passing so quickly. This is the only time of year when I want to slow time down. I spend the entire year trying to get here as fast as I can, then once I'm here I want to slam on the brakes. I'm beginning to have those moments when the feel of autumn is so strong it drowns out everything else. Lately it's been making me think about the perfect soundtrack for a Halloween party.

The top of any Halloween music list as to be the theme song from the movie Halloween; right on its heels is "Pet Sematary" by the Ramones. For some reason I've always equated the old Van Morrison song "Moondance" with Halloween, too. I love that song. "Bela Lugosi's Dead" by Bauhaus is an October classic, as well as anything by Type O Negative. And Midnight Syndicate. If you've never heard anything by Midnight Syndicate, look them up right this moment. If you distilled the raw essence of every spooky story you ever heard, you would have Midnight Syndicate. I have a friend who swears by them, believing them to be a vital element of any Halloween party. To finish off the list you must have "The Lyre of Orpheus" by Nick Cave and "I Feel Alright" by Steve Earle. ~ Damien Echols

Hark, now hear the sailors cry, smell the sea, and feel the sky let your soul & spirit fly, into the mystic ... ~ Van Morrison

Men come, men go, all things remain in God. ~ Van Morrison

You gotta fight every day to keep mediocrity at bay ... ~ Van Morrison

The British rockers saved me. They brought me to a different generation altogether [in the 60th]. The Who and The Yardbirds and Georgie Fame and Van Morrison and all those people. The only person who ever did my songs in [ U.S] country was Bonnie Raitt. ~ Mose Allison

Jackie Wilson said it was Reet-Petite, kind of love you got knock me off my feet. ~ Van Morrison

Going down the old mine with a transistor radio. ~ Van Morrison

And I will stroll the merry way
And jump the hedges first
And I will drink the clear
Clean water for to quench my thirst
And I shall watch the ferry-boats
And they'll get high
On a bluer ocean
Against tomorrows sky
And I will never grow so old again
And I will walk and talk
In gardens all wet with rain

Oh sweet thing, sweet thing
My, my, my, my, my sweet thing
And I shall drive my chariot
Down your streets and cry
Hey, it's me, I'm dynamite
And I don't know why
And you shall take me strongly
In your arms again
And I will not remember
That I even felt the pain.
We shall walk and talk
In gardens all misty and wet with rain
And I will never, never, never
Grow so old again.

Oh sweet thing, sweet thing
My, my, my, my, my sweet thing
And I will raise my hand up
Into the night time sky
And count the stars
That's shining in your eye
Just to dig it all an not to wonder
That's just fine
And I'll be satisfied
Not to read in between the lines
And I will walk and talk
In gardens all wet with rain
And I will never, ever, ever, ever
Grow so old again.
Oh sweet thing, sweet thing
Sugar-baby with your champagne eyes
And your saint-like smile....

- Sweet Thing ~ Van Morrison

Music to me is spontaneous, writing is spontaneous and it's all based on not trying to do it. From beginning to end, whether it's writing a song, or playing guitar, or a particular chord sequence, or blowing a horn, it's based on improvisation and spontaneity. ~ Van Morrison

Once in a blue moon someone like you comes along. ~ Van Morrison

I write songs. Then, I record them. And, later, maybe I perform them on stage. That's what I do. That's my job. Simple. ~ Van Morrison

I put out records to this day that are not necessarily in a sequence of anything. Some could be written a while back, some not. There is no set pattern. ~ Van Morrison

A fantabulous night to make romance. ~ Van Morrison

A famous person to themselves, they don't get up in the morning and think, I'm famous. I'm not famous to me. Famous is a perception. ~ Van Morrison

I forgot that love existed, troubled in my mind. Heartache after heartache, worried all the time. I forgot that love existed Then I saw the light Everyone around me make everything alright. ~ Van Morrison

Memories, how they linger in the twilight and in the wee small hours sometimes just before dawn. ~ Van Morrison

You know what they're writing about Baby you know what they're writing about It's a thing called love down through the ages Makes you wanna cry sometimes Makes you feel like you wanna lay down and die sometimes Makes you high sometimes But when you really get in it lifts you right up. ~ Van Morrison

It was really strange for me when I started to play concerts in America where the audiences were all sitting down. ~ Van Morrison

I'm a dweller of the threshold and I'm waiting at the door, and I'm standing in the darkness, I don't want to wait no more. ~ Van Morrison

I've got love in my life, as well as trouble and strife. ~ Van Morrison

The fog of illusion, the fog of confusion is hanging all over the world. ~ Van Morrison

When the ghost comes round at midnight Well you both can have some fun He can drive you mad, he can make you sad He can keep you from the sun When they take him down, he'll be both safe and sound And the hand does fit the glove And no matter what they tell you, There's good and evil in everyone. ~ Van Morrison

I went back to Belfast and started a club, the Maritime. No one had thought about doing a blues club, so I was the first. ~ Van Morrison

If I ventured in the slipstream between the viaducts of your dreams, where immobile steel rims crack and the ditch in the back roads stop. Could you find me? ~ Van Morrison

You have to understand a bit about the poetry of the blues to know where the references are coming from. ~ Van Morrison

From the dark end of the street - To the bright side of the road - We'll be lovers once again on the - Bright side of the road ~ Van Morrison

Hearing the blues changed my life. ~ Van Morrison

Oh won't you stay Stay a while with your own ones Don't ever stray Stray so far from your own ones 'Cause the world is so cold Don't care nothing for your soul That you share with your own ones. ~ Van Morrison

Lately I've been falling asleep listening to 'Common One' by Van Morrison, specifically the song 'Summertime in England.' It's 15 minutes long, so to make it through the entire song is a real task unto itself, but Van has that emotional payoff that makes even his most tiresome songs more powerful than most people's entire catalog. ~ Nate Ruess

My records do not require a lot of thought of 'What is this?' and 'What is that?' That would be too contrived for me. ~ Van Morrison

Large audiences did not suit my low-key approach. ~ Van Morrison

Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea They thought great thoughts about liberty Poets wrote down words that did fit Writers wrote books Thinkers thought about it. ~ Van Morrison

I'm very lucky, I'm happy with life because my experiences led me to do what I had to do. I don't have any regrets whatsoever. ~ Van Morrison

If the Enchanted Forest were in a movie, they'd always be playing Bob Dylan or Van Morrison or maybe even Leonard Cohen in the background. Greta thought about that a lot. Sometimes when she was taking a shower or helping her mom in the restaurant, she'd imagine what kind of scene it would be and what would be playing to set the mood. ~ Emma Straub

Did you ever hear about the rock and roll singer who got 3 or 4 Cadillacs, saying power to the people, dance to the music, wants you to pat him on the back. ~ Van Morrison

Enlightenment, don't know what it is. It's up to you, the way you think. ~ Van Morrison

Leave your thoughtlessness behind you then you may begin to understand. Clear the emptiness around you with the waving of your hand. ~ Van Morrison

You've got to separate the singer and the songs. ~ Van Morrison

At the end of the day, we should give thanks and pray, to the one, to the one. ~ Van Morrison

Don't want to discuss it, I think it's time for a change You may get disgusted, some think that I'm strange In that case I'll go underground, get some heavy rest Never have to worry, about what is worst and what is best. ~ Van Morrison

If you never hear from me that just means I would rather not. ~ Van Morrison

And I shall watch the ferry boats, and they'll get high, on a bluer ocean against tomorrow's sky. and i will never grow so old again, and i will walk and talk, in gardens all wet with rain ... ~ Van Morrison

These are the days of the endless summer, these are the days, the time is now. There is no past, there's only future, there's only here, there's only now. ~ Van Morrison

There's an angel that's watching right over you All your trials have not been in vain Won't you lift your head up to the starry night Finding strength in the things that remain. ~ Van Morrison

If it's what you do and you can do it, then you do it. ~ Van Morrison

Gloria watched the swollen white orb of a hot-air balloon rising over Navy Pier and knew she had to break it off with Oliver, for he was the type who would never enjoy hot-air balloons, Van Morrison songs, or mess, whether from orgasm or otherwise. But who was she to be dreaming about mess today? ~ Andrea Kayne Kaufman

I had my eyes closed in the dark, I sighed a million sighs, I told a million lies, to myself, to myself. ~ Van Morrison