Top 80 Quotes & Sayings by Brian Wilson
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American musician Brian Wilson.
Last updated on September 17, 2024.
I meditate and I also think about meditation. Which is funny. I think about Maharishi, about just the idea of meditating. It gives me something.
I believe that writers run out of material, I really do. I believe very strongly in the fact that when the natural time is up, writers actually do run out of material. To me it's black and white. When there's a song there's a song, when there's not there's not.
I'm just a shy and retreating kind of person. Sometimes I get in a real talkative mood - but not very often.
First of all, I want people to understand that I'm here to create for them. To create music for people so they'll know that I'm a source of love. And they can depend on my name.
It's like when a guy gets a divorce from his wife. You part ways. That's what I did with The Beach Boys.
Any article's good. Long as it's publicity, I think that's all that matters. I think it's advancement for my career.
I'm not a genius. I'm just a hard-working guy.
I wake up in the morning and I say 'Ahh! Today's the day for a song! I'm going to write a song today!' And I do. I write a song.
If you're going to write a song, try to get together with a collaborator because it's better to write with collaborators.
The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Phil Spector. Those were my idols.
My brother Carl taught me how to play bass. I'm a self-taught keyboard player, though - I figured out our harmonies at the piano.
The keyboard is my whole life. My life is centered around either sitting at my keyboard or driving my car. Those are the two most important things, more than anything else. Being at my keyboard, it's the happiest time for me.
I think cursing is a bunch of malarkey.
When I can't write, it depresses me.
If there's not love present, it's much, much harder to function. When there's love present, it's easier to deal with life.
I get off on hearing other people's voices. I like voices: they're my favourite things on records.
Politics goes in one ear and out the other. I don't even know the president's name for sure. That's how stupid I am.
The audiences in the U.K. like me more than in America.
Pop music has been exhausted. The innocence has been exhausted. I think we've lost the ability to be blown away by music.
I like the piano - I'm always about 15 feet away from a piano.
My skills are musical, not lyrical.
I play piano all the time. I'm always at my piano, playing music.
You know what? I'm not always in a positive, happy place. But I'm able to concentrate enough to come up with a really good song.
I listen to oldies but goodies stations, '60s and '70s music.
I always do get a little bit paranoid when I get a lot of attention. But I get used to it.
To wear a floral shirt is an experience.
Don't get married until you're certain that you're marrying the right girl. How did I know my wife was the one? I'd seen her for a couple of months. I liked her. She was a very creative person and she had a very good grip on politics and business.
You want to know my real pleasure? Food. I love chocolate. I can't get enough chocolate. I can't help it. But my biggest pleasure of all is exercise. I really get off on exercise.
I can write songs, I've had songs in movies, but I can't compose film scores, you know?
I think I'm a vocal genius, not a musical genius. I like background vocals. I consider myself a voice, not a singer. A voice is a sound, and singing is what you do with that sound.
My mother used to tell me about vibrations. I didn't really understand too much of what that meant when I was just a boy. To think that invisible feelings, invisible vibrations existed scared me to death.
I think in terms of emotions. And feelings. So sometimes what I say may not always be clear. But creatively, there's a lot to be said for that way of thinking.
Every now and then I hear voices in my head, but not very clear. I can't understand what they are saying. It's a mental illness. I have been diagnosed as a manic depressive.
I have to tell you that J.S. Bach was easily the greatest musical innovator in the history of the world. He was so advanced for his time. There's a spiritual depth to his music. You can listen to it and it's like meditation.
Probably not much of a song left in me, you know, if any, because I've written so many, some 250 songs or 300 or whatever it is.
I earned my famous name.
There's no outdoing The Beatles.
I would listen to Little Richard and Fats Domino and Chuck Berry, and I would listen to how they played their riffs, and after I taught myself that, I taught myself to play my own kind of stuff.
Summer means happy times and good sunshine. It means going to the beach, going to Disneyland, having fun.
I think I need the demons in order to write, but the demons have gone. It bothers me a lot. I've tried and tried, but I just can't seem to find a melody.
The Beach Boys have always been a part of the '60s spectrum, with The Beatles and that kind of thing. They were a part of the music business like everyone else. And they did quite well as a singing group, and I finished a lot of good records, and I'm very proud of them.
I'd earned over a million dollars by the time I was old enough to vote.
I have stage fright every single concert I've ever done. I have at least four or five minutes of it. It's absolute living hell.
I consider myself to be a crusader of love. I try to spread love around the world as best I can because I know I have a handle on love.
Gershwin inspired me very much. The concept of 'That Lucky Old Sun' was inspired by 'Rhapsody in Blue' - not influenced, but inspired.
I was very, very financially secure my whole life. I have been very lucky to say that.
I still believe that something is right only when it feels right.
What in the world is a hangover cure?
You know, Rolling Stones songs all sound kind of the same.
I wanted to emulate Bob Flanagan, the high voice in the 'Four Freshmen.' I wanted to sing high like he did.
I'm happy; I'm a happy person.
You say how you feel, and songs don't lie. Songs are the most honest form of human expression there is--there's nothing that lies about a song.
Every now and then I hear voices in my head, but not very clear. I can't understand what they are saying. It's a mental illness. I have been diagnosed as a manic depressive.
I have auditory hallucinations, I hear voices saying derogatory things, like I'm terrible and I'm going to die, and they're usually worse in the afternoon.
The idea of taking a song, envisioning the overall sound in my head and then bringing the arrangement to life in the studio...well, that gives me satisfaction like nothing else.
Some people might think that sex is the highest experience you can have. I tend to think that music is.
I approach my music-making as an art-form--something pure from the spirit to which I can add dynamics and marketable reality. Music is genuine and healthy and the stimulation I get from molding it and adding dynamics is like nothing else on earth.
The only reason I'd ever get a sex change operation is to see what it's like to be right all the time.
I believe that music is God's voice.
Humor - it helps to make the vibe better - it loosens up the vibrations.
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