Top 90 Quotes & Sayings by Gord Downie - Page 2

Within the Universal deal, we've always felt like an independent act. We've never been told what to do. We've used their resources to our own design.

I've changed like crazy. I know I have, 'cause I work at it.

To be honest, I think affiliation is anathema - if you're a rock 'n' roller, you're a lone wolf.

I'm not a rock star writing poetry. I don't feel like a rock star and I don't know what one is, actually. I'm a goalie/poet or a hotel guest/poet or a father/poet.

We've played on 'Saturday Night Live' and got not even a Rolling Stone review.

It's a gas, just phoning up some bands and saying: 'You don't know us but we love you and would you come play with us?'

I think the recording industry is founded on that principle: to approximate the live experience, to approximate that thing that evaporates as it's happening, disappears as it's happening.

I'm just a student. I'm learning all the time, and, like anyone, I'm just looking for words I can use and a hummable melody.

I write lyrics. putting words and melodies to my songs. That's a real challenge, I take it on vigorously.

We were big Clash fans, you know, big Who fans and I think we would listen to this music and talk about music and do nothing but music night and day, and when it came time to actually making our own music, you feel compelled to sort of tuck all those influences away, not show them.

In the past, when you were just starting out, you had a day and a half of studio time - maybe two, if your buddy's uncle lets you stay.

I work a couple of hours a day with a guitar or pushing words around, so over time I have a lot of material, so I don't get into this feast-or-famine situation.

When you write and make music, there's a tendency to save stuff... to be cagey, to be savvy.

If you want to know what being Canadian is, it's being part of the human race, allowing yourself to be vulnerable, which has been scared off, warded away, girded against.

What would be great is if everyone who bought a record got a comp ticket to a show.

You have to - you have to allow something to tell you what it wants to be.

We were interested in making a long career out of this, rather than being 'Canada's Newest Hitmakers.' It seems to work, and it trickles down to every aspect of the band.

You sort of get so lulled into thinking of yourself as this five-headed thing, the group, the band, The Hip. I guess you just forget it's a family, and like every good family, you can forget. But you're also committed to each other, so there's always room to grow, to learn and relearn.

I used to run the band hockey pool - regular season and playoffs. I would write weekly reports, which were meant to demoralize and diffuse enjoyment for others.

When you're opening for someone, there's no pressure.

Acting is like lifting a 400-pound feather. It's a feather, how hard could it be? And yet, you go to lift it and it's heavy. For that reason, I love it, because it's very hard and difficult and challenging and obviously I want to learn more.

I come to America because if you're a rock 'n' roll musician you should come here every chance you get.

I was a rink rat growing up. I was a goalie and my father was a busy father of five, so he would come when he could. When he did show up, I'd look up and there he would be.

I had spend a lot of time looking at things intellectually, coming from the head, let's say, rather than the heart, and saying things that way. Turns of phrases became paramount to any kind of feeling behind them, which is not to say they were all devoid of that.

When we started in university we were wearing lampshades on our heads and playing wacky covers like 'I'm a Believer.'

I like Al Purdy.

If you work hard enough I don't think it's possible to just repeat what you're doing.

The Bruins have become so much more to me than some boyhood fascination.

A live album is a no-brainer.

We've met a ton of pro hockey players, got to know them, our music plays in their locker rooms. We've always taken pride in that.