Top 160 Quotes & Sayings by John Mellencamp - Page 3

I'm trying to write for people my age. And my inspiration over the years has changed dramatically.

Rock'n'roll starts between the legs and goes through the heart, then to the head. As long as it does those three things, it's a great rock song.

When you live life for yourself it's hard on everyone. And that hasn't changed. For me, if anything, it's gotten worse.

You can't tell your best buddy that you love him.

To say that we're doomed is just an obvious remark.

I want you to dance naked, if you like, I'll join you.

His frustration running very high, he takes it out on the ones he loves because it's safe.

Give me someone I can look up to, show me someone I can love.

I think the Internet is the most dangerous thing invented since the atomic bomb.

Check it out, forgot to say hello to my neighbors. Check it out, sometimes I question my own behavior.

My voice has gotten better from smoking.

Nobody wants to make great albums now because nobody wants to buy them and there's no place to sell them.

You have to reinvent yourself.

The reason I said the Internet is dangerous is that a couple smart guys could hack into a computer and shut down the Eastern seaboard if they wanted to. It's a terrible, out-of-control thing.

Back in the '80s and '90s, when there was still a record business, there was pressure on anyone who was fortunate to have a few hits on a major label to continue that success.

Country sure has changed in the last 10 years. It was one thing, then it was another. Country has slowly marched toward a rock beat and rock preservation. Country artists of today. Man! That's how I used to sound in the '80s.

All my friends are so small town.

The simple man, baby, pays for the thrills, the bills, and the pills that kill.

Music actually meant something when I started doing it. Too bad I wasn't mature enough to write anything that meant anything.

The Internet is the wrong direction for music.

The greatest thing that ever happened to (my career) was the breakdown of the record companies, because there were no more stupid questions about how many hits are on the next record. It was very liberating.

I've never had anybody produce my records. I've always produced my own records. I've worked with a guy for a while who was an engineer who helped me produce records, but I've always made my own records. I'm a control fanatic. I've got to control everything.

I'm not a nostalgic person. I'm not nostalgic about much of anything.

We lost our way a long time ago with technology. Just because something is an advancement by going digital - that was a huge (expletive) mistake. It was a way for people to make money, but it sure didn't improve sound or quality of record making. It made it faster, cheaper, but it isn't as durable.

I look at some of my contemporaries trying to emulate what they were 30 years ago and just because of the age factor alone, they look silly.

Dear Mr. President, can I ask you a question, when the bombs fall down will they hurt everyone in my family?

For me or a Bruce Springsteen to sit up in our ivory towers and make comments about racism, well, were not really in it, are we?

She said she wasn't afraid of Satan, in fact, she thought he was a joke. She said she'd tear his tail off and run her fist down his throat.

Go to work and be a Hollywood stud, drive your four wheel drive right into the mud.

All the women in the world want a phony rock star who plays guitar.

Nobody heard anything ahead of time.

Turning music into digital was just a con, a record-company con.

Hold on to 16 as long as you can.

Want me to spend the night? Hey lover boy, you know I will, and my best girlfriend lives down the road, together we will thrill you.

The dust to which this flesh shall return, it is the ancient dreaming dust of God.

I remember the first time I saw a CD, a technology guy brought one to my house and said we will be able to sell millions and millions of players, and people will have to restock their record collections. It was all about money. It was all about how much money we would make, "we" being "him."

This is serious business, sex, violence, and rock and roll.

With no bottom line, it's hard to know wrong from right. But I ain't ever satisfied.

Mama, why do I always fall for the crazy ones?

You shouldn't even be in a band if you can't play Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away.