Top 38 Quotes & Sayings by Roy Orbison

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American musician Roy Orbison.

Last updated on December 21, 2024.

Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer, songwriter, and musician known for his impassioned singing style, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. His music was described by critics as operatic, earning him the nicknames "The Caruso of Rock" and "The Big O." Many of Orbison's songs conveyed vulnerability at a time when most male rock-and-roll performers chose to project masculinity. He performed while standing motionless and wearing black clothes to match his dyed black hair and dark sunglasses, which he wore to counter his shyness and stage fright.

American - Musician | April 23, 1936 - December 6, 1988

Source: Wikipedia

To be a songwriter-singer means the songs come from deep within, and you treat them as an artist, with that much respect. I couldn't hardly cheat myself.

Roy Orbison

Barbara and I wanted to do a television special, and she put it together with T Bone Burnett, and they came up with the idea of it being black and white. It was fabulous; we had a great time. It was wonderful.

Roy Orbison

I started using sunglasses in Alabama. I was going to do a show with Patsy Cline and Bobby Vee, and I left my clear glasses on the plane. I only had the sunshades, and I was quite embarrassed to go onstage with them, but I did it.

Roy Orbison

Love hurts, love scars, love wounds, and mars.

Roy Orbison

Pretty woman, I don't believe you, you're not the truth. No one could look as good as you, mercy.

Roy Orbison

The image, like the voice, came in stages. I never sat down with anyone and said, 'Let's design an image.'

Roy Orbison

You wiggle to the left, you wiggle to the right, you do the Ooby Dooby with all your might.

Roy Orbison

My dad was an auto mechanic, but we moved to Fort Worth, where he worked in defense, building B-24s.

Roy Orbison

My voice is a gift. My talent is a gift. The life process is a gift. The opportunity for the journey is a gift.

Roy Orbison

You set out to whip the world, and then, when you get beat up a little bit... In my case, you say, 'Father, I'm gonna let you have it. I've done what I can do.' You turn your will over to God.

Roy Orbison

I was stuck with the dark glasses. They took all these pictures that went around the world. I guess once you become successful, you don't want to change anything too drastically.

Roy Orbison

It's a gift, and a blessing, just to have a voice. And I'm proud that people do appreciate it, you know?

Roy Orbison

If you have faith, then your whole life is put in a new perspective. You get to work but enjoy the work at the same time. If you grow spiritually, you do what's in front of you and let the results speak for themselves.

Roy Orbison

I got my group together when I was about thirteen. We had a local radio show, and then we started touring for the principal of the high school - he was in the Lions Club, and so we were the entertainment.

Roy Orbison

I learned my first songs when I was six and seven, and when I was eight years old, I won a local talent show.

Roy Orbison

Looking back on it now, I felt that I was blessed much like the masters, I guess - the guys who wrote the concertos.

Roy Orbison

As you stopped to say hello, oh, you wished me well, you couldn't tell that I'd been crying over you.

Roy Orbison

I've really learned a lot, really learned a lot, love is like a stove, burns you when it's hot.

Roy Orbison

We used to say, 'I don't wanna be jumping around and going crazy when I'm thirty,' you know? Even Mick Jagger said, 'Well, I can't see myself at forty jumping around.' Well, here we are, you know?

Roy Orbison

I close my eyes, then I drift away, into the magic night I softly say. A silent prayer, like dreamers do, then I fall asleep to dream my dreams of you.

Roy Orbison

I always felt each instrumental and vocal inflection had to be special... I'd spend almost as much time on those as I'd spend on the song itself.

Roy Orbison

When I was six years old, Mom and Dad gave me a guitar for my birthday, and Daddy taught me the chords to 'You Are My Sunshine.'

Roy Orbison

I got a woman that's mean as she can be, sometimes I think she's almost as mean as me.

Roy Orbison

Only the lonely know the way I feel tonight.

Roy Orbison

Every once in awhile, the world will push up an Elvis Presley or a Beatles. But that's really outside the realm of show business.

Roy Orbison

I may be a living legend, but that sure don't help when I've got to change a flat tire.

Roy Orbison

ELVIS PRESLEY was bigger than life. His success was documented and laid out for him. He came to the first show I had in Memphis, and it was very nice. He sort of treated me like an equal, because we were both fresh in the business. We got to be great friends and kindred souls.

Roy Orbison

Saving nickels, saving dimes, working 'til the sun don't shine, looking forward to happier times.

Roy Orbison

I waited, and I’m sure Elvis did too, for each Ricky Nelson record like we would a Chuck Berry record or a Fats Domino record, to see what was going on. I used to say to some of the guys that Ricky Nelson learned to sing on million selling records.

Roy Orbison

People often ask me how would I like to be remembered and I answer that I would simply like to be remembered.

Roy Orbison

Without the word dream, or the concept dream, and without the word blue and the emotions, I would have been really limited in the things I've written and performed.

Roy Orbison

Love ranges from just fascination to something almost spiritual. In the case with my wife Barbara it just keeps growing all the time.

Roy Orbison

I've really learned a lot, really learned a lot, love is like a stove, burns you when it's hot

Roy Orbison

Before you go to sleep, do not forget to say thanks for everything good that has happened to you in the last 24 hours.

Roy Orbison

Whether I'm in London, Sydney or Hong Kong, it makes no difference. There is always someone who knows me. I must be one of the most unloneliest people in the world!

Roy Orbison

A candy coloured clown they call the sandman Tiptoes into my room every night Just to sprinkle stardust and whisper; "Go to sleep, everything is alright"

Roy Orbison

Elvis was the firstest with the mostest.

Roy Orbison

I saw Elvis live in '54. It was at the Big D Jamboree in Dallas and the first thing, he came out and spit on the stage...it affected me exactly the same way as when I first saw that David Lynch film. There was just no reference point in the culture to compare it to.

Roy Orbison

Top 38 Quotes & Sayings by Roy Orbison

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