Top 110 Quotes & Sayings by Robbie Robertson - Page 2

My mother told me when I was a toddler and in the crib that they would have music playing, and the thing when I lit up was boogie-woogie or something out of the Louie Jordan period of sometimes big bands, and then all kinds of things.

There's something so healthy about young people speaking up in unity.

When I was playing with Bob Dylan in, like, 1966, I was, like, 20 years old.

I was a storyteller for The Band. It was never, 'Hey guys, here's a song about what happened to me.' I was always more comfortable writing fiction.

Time is not kind to everything.

I'm always optimistic.

Some music is supposed to be disposable; that's OK. A lot of music is fun for today, but it isn't supposed to be timeless; it's supposed to be trendy.

I really have to feel a sense of freedom in my storytelling.

I've always been in love with that Delta-flavored music... the music that came from Mississippi and Memphis and, especially, New Orleans. When I was 14, I was in a wanna-be New Orleans band in Toronto.

After the 'Last Waltz' concert, it just seemed very healthy to me to put making a record as far out of my mind as I possibly could.

I think that there's always great music being made. Always has been, always will be.

I thought of a lot of people from the same era when I was making a lot of records that had continued making a lot of records. A lot of it didn't seem terribly inspired.

A lot of people from my generation can't write songs anymore, or it's really hard and it's an unpleasant experience. I don't feel that way at all.

I don't know - it's a bit of a mystery of how things come about when they do. I don't have a scientific explanation for it. Sometimes when you're writing a song, you don't know where you're going.

You never know what could be interesting tomorrow.

In Americana, the facts and the dreams seem to be all the same to me.

It's extraordinary that revolutions taking place around the world were sparked by communication on the Internet.

I come from a family who prided themselves, both sides, on memory. And I was told growing up, constantly, that I was born with a really good memory.

There's a bookstore in New York where you could buy scripts, and I got addicted to them because they were easy, quick reads... and the pictures were so vivid.

I think, some countries, you have to be dead to have your picture on a stamp.

My mother was a Mohawk, born and raised on a reservation, and when I was a kid, she would take me there to visit her relatives.

A lot of times when you're making a record, you put your head down and charge forward until you're done. You just hope that the ideas hold up, because you're kind of lost in your own storm.

To find a new star in the sky is pretty hard.

Some people love some music, and they hear it a year later and they think, 'What was I thinking?'

I'd always thought Cage's 'Root of an Unfocus' would be great in a movie.

Musical revolutions, I don't know how many I've been through.

The kid at 9 or 10 who knows who Billie Holiday is... that's the coolest thing ever.

For years after 'The Last Waltz,' I got all kinds of silly movie offers - or, maybe, not silly, but parts that are not my calling... lots of offers to play some wonderful boyfriend.

Chuck Berry told me if it wasn't for Louis Jordan, he wouldn't have probably ever even got into music. That Louis Jordan changed everything and made him want to become a musician.

Working on 'The Last Waltz' introduced me to Martin Scorsese, and I had been a movie bug since I was a young kid.

I try not to think the song to death. The main criteria is if it's working on an emotional level.

Confused by the big city blues, he didn't know who's life he's leading. Put yourself behind the wheel, see if you can get that feel.

When people get together that come from different musical backgrounds, a lot of times there's is a good ... it's very enjoyable to say somebody, let me turn you on to some things, and the other person does the same thing. And they play you stuff that maybe you weren't that familiar with and likewise.

You fog the mind, you stir the soul.

The Beatles tried to do some tours and found it to be completely pointless and became a non-touring band after that, and with very good reason.

There's a bookstore in New York where you could buy scripts, and I got addicted to them because they were easy, quick reads and the pictures were so vivid.

While I was there, I was just gathering images and names, and ideas and rhythms, and I was storing all of these things - which I didn't realize I was doing - but I was storing them all in an attic in my mind somewhere. And when it was time to sit down and write songs, when I reached into the attic to see what I was gonna write about, that's what was there.

For years after 'The Last Waltz,' I got all kinds of silly movie offers - or, maybe, not silly, but parts that are not my calling lots of offers to play some wonderful boyfriend.

The rock concert experience for people was really pretty stupid, you know, at the time. People would go to concerts not with the idea of listening at all.

Lord please save his soul, he was the king of rock and roll.

I don't believe it's all for nothing. It's not just written in the sand.

Once you establish a foundation of knowing what the greatest recording artists of all time were Wouldn't you want your kids to know this stuff?

I've always been in love with that Delta-flavored music the music that came from Mississippi and Memphis and, especially, New Orleans. When I was 14, I was in a wanna-be New Orleans band in Toronto.

Say a prayer for the lost generation, who spin the wheel out of desperation.

Give us the strength, give us the wisdom, and give us tomorrow.

It would be nice to abandon the verse-chorus-bridge structure completely, and make it so none of these things are definable...Make up new names for them. Instead of a bridge, you can call it a highway, or an overpass...Music should never be harmless.

At a young age I thought, 'Wow, that fiddle thing, that's pretty cool. That mandolin is great. These drums, I like these drums ' They were Indian drums. And I was saying, 'But that guitar. That guitar. Girls are going to like that guitar.'

It would be nice to abandon the verse-chorus-bridge structure completely, and make it so none of these things are definable. ... Make up new names for them. Instead of a bridge, you can call it a highway, or an overpass. ... Music should never be harmless. ... I remember from my earliest years, people speaking, you know, in a certain kind of rhythm and telling stories and sharing experiences in a way that was different in Indian country than it was other places. And I was really struck by this and obviously very affected by it, because it's always come out in my songs.

making a noise in this world making a noise in this world you can bet your ass, I won't go quietly making a noise in this world.

When you make a record, your own record, and you don't even recognize it yourself, it's hard to think if anybody else is going to recognize.