Top 132 Quotes & Sayings by Steven Van Zandt

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American musician Steven Van Zandt.

Last updated on November 21, 2024.

Steven Van Zandt, also known as Little Steven or Miami Steve, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, producer, actor, activist and author. He is best known as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, in which he plays guitar and mandolin. He is also known for his roles in several television drama series, including as Silvio Dante in The Sopranos (1999–2007) and as Frank Tagliano in Lilyhammer (2012–2014). Van Zandt has his own solo band called Little Steven and The Disciples of Soul, intermittently active since the 1980s. In 2014, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the E Street Band. Van Zandt has produced music, written songs, and had his own songs covered by Bruce Springsteen, Meat Loaf, Nancy Sinatra, Pearl Jam, Artists United Against Apartheid, and the Iron City Houserockers, among others.

American - Musician | Born: November 22, 1950

Source: Wikipedia

A lot of the idealism of the Sixties was spot on, from the environmentalism to the war to the Civil Rights movement, the women's rights movement, you name it.

Steven Van Zandt

I know what it takes to make a band, how they should interact, what makes a record sound like it's a band - everything having to do with a band, I happen to be into.

Steven Van Zandt

Like most people, I've always felt using words like 'best' when applied to art is a fun way for critics to stay busy at the end of the year, and I guess a good way to help get ratings for awards shows, which is fine.

Steven Van Zandt

It's become uncool to play other people's songs, and that's absurd. It has got to change. It's the reason why everything's so mediocre.

Steven Van Zandt

I've always considered the government taking one out of every two dollars I earn absolute tyranny.

Steven Van Zandt

Where do I begin with 'The Godfather?' It's like explaining why the 'Bible' is so popular. I'll always remember seeing the first one because it was the only time I went to the movies with my grandfather.

Steven Van Zandt

The quality of our lives is diminished every time we lose a great artist. It's a different world without Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Curtis Mayfield, Brian Jones and the rest.

Steven Van Zandt

The Rascals are something else. They're up there with the Beatles, and Stones and Byrds. That level of musicality. They have a real chemistry. It is like magic.

Steven Van Zandt

I need a big picture. I can't just do a collection of songs; that doesn't work for me.

Steven Van Zandt

I grew up in a renaissance period, a very lucky time when the greatest music ever made was also the most commercial. We'll never see that again, so for me, there's only one criteria, which is greatness. That's all I care about. Is what I'm doing reaching for greatness? Whether I achieve it or not, that is one hundred percent of my criteria.

Steven Van Zandt

Once Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings are not cool on country radio, it's time for a new format.

Steven Van Zandt

I've always been very thematic with my work, very conceptual.

Steven Van Zandt

I'm always surprised when a sequel is not as good or better than the first one. I never understand that. You've already set your own bar. You've already done the hard work. It should be easier to make the second one, but a lot of the times, it's not.

Steven Van Zandt

My mother remarried when I was young, and my stepfather adopted me.

Steven Van Zandt

I don't wake up every day and just write to write. I only write with purpose.

Steven Van Zandt

Let the wealthier countries and corporations of the world fund an Emergency Organization.

Steven Van Zandt

There are... certainly more innovations on 'Revolver'... but the truth of the matter is 'Sgt. Pepper' has something that was just completely different and unique at that moment.

Steven Van Zandt

I have very little interest in the modern world, and I'm not in any way conflicted about that.

Steven Van Zandt

The only reason why I made solo records was because I got so obsessed with politics, and that is quite personal. I don't really philosophically believe in solo records.

Steven Van Zandt

I was obsessed with politics in the '80s. I've recovered and I'm feeling much better now, thank you.

Steven Van Zandt

Rock n' roll is our religion, and we will continue to lose disciples as we go, but we pick up the fallen flag and keep moving forward, bringing forth the good news that our heroes have helped create, their bodies lost, but their spirits and their good work everlasting.

Steven Van Zandt

It's so liberating to play a song in front of 50,000 people that you've never played before. Not something you played a long time ago and have forgotten: Never. Played. Before. There's something magical about it.

Steven Van Zandt

The first rule of rock and roll is it's all about live. Then you have to learn a second craft, which is making records. It should go in that order.

Steven Van Zandt

C-17s should be ready to go at various military bases around the world packed with water, food, medical supplies, sleeping bags and tents, all prepared to be air dropped in alongside soldiers and doctors to begin relief efforts.

Steven Van Zandt

Half of the modern world goes back as far as Pearl Jam. The real historians go back to U2. But they need to go back further. They have to go back to the '50s and '60s, where things started. That's how you get to be your own personality, by studying the masters. Rock and roll was white kids trying to make black music and failing, gloriously!

Steven Van Zandt

I am Italian. Springsteen's mostly Italian, too. We're both Italians with Dutch names, one of the many things we have in common.

Steven Van Zandt

You can trace the E Street Band directly back to the Rascals.

Steven Van Zandt

Within three hours of a disaster event there should be a recon damage assessment of the infrastructure and an educated guess as to the casualties and degree of imminent human peril. Then make the airdrops of supplies and personnel. Simultaneously, Seabees would be dropped in, with lights and generators, to begin rescue efforts.

Steven Van Zandt

You think your congressman is working all day to get you a job? He may want to. He or she is probably not a bad person. They probably want to do the right thing. But they can't.

Steven Van Zandt

I was deep into it - worldwide liberation politics as well as domestic - but by the end of the '80s, I had decided it all comes down to one single issue: campaign-finance elimination.

Steven Van Zandt

First of all, just because the Tea Party people appear to be generally uneducated, ignorant about the political process, ignorant about economics, confused about their own platform from the beginning, and indelicate when it comes to the craft of diplomacy, doesn't mean they're wrong.

Steven Van Zandt

I am interested in the interaction of a group of people who have a common goal, or a common obsession, each contributing something unique to make something greater than the sum of its parts. I don't know why, but from day one, that has interested me.

Steven Van Zandt

For me, making a record is a vacation. I'd like to do it more often. Just, chances are impossible... It's a very expensive hobby, you know?

Steven Van Zandt

Rock n' roll as a genre is different from pop and hip hop: it is about bands, and that for me suggests brotherhood, family, friendship and community.

Steven Van Zandt

My lifelong friend and mentor Frank Barsalona is gone. And the music business as we knew it went with him.

Steven Van Zandt

To walk into a studio, for me, is just like walking onto a beach or something.

Steven Van Zandt

I played around with the idea of touring with a soul revue, with Smokey Robinson, Sam Moore, Darlene Love, people like that.

Steven Van Zandt

Life should never be boring.

Steven Van Zandt

I didn't care about anything expect rock & roll. So it's nice that it turned out to be something that you find a way to make a living from.

Steven Van Zandt

Reach for greatness, nothing less. And make sure you have some fun along the way.

Steven Van Zandt

I met all my heroes on the oldies circuit: Gary U.S. Bonds, Lloyd Price, Little Richard.

Steven Van Zandt

You ask people to fall in love with you. To need you. To want you. To buy your records and come see you. You have an emotional contract with people. To break up is to violate that contract.

Steven Van Zandt

I was a gambler when I was a kid, so when we got to Las Vegas, it was like Mecca.

Steven Van Zandt

As most of the population suffers through life, barely surviving, disappointed and confused day after day, hopeless, wondering what happened to their strong and beautiful country, it is in the media's power to restore, if not some of our quality of life, at least a bit of our peace of mind.

Steven Van Zandt

What the world needs is an Emergency Boss. An Emergency Czar. An Emergency Commander. A true Master Of Disaster. One person completely responsible for the anticipation, immediate reconnaissance, and urgent execution of rescue and relief efforts around the world.

Steven Van Zandt

The British invasion was the most important event of my life. I was in New Jersey and the night I saw the Beatles changed everything. I had seen Elvis before and he had done nothing for me, but these guys were in a band.

Steven Van Zandt

Young fans want to know about the past and older fans also want to find new music.

Steven Van Zandt

I just love that whole Brill Building era. I will always regret not being there. That's where I belong.

Steven Van Zandt

I did 10 years on 'Sopranos,' but the whole craft of acting is relatively new to me. I'm still learning that, and I'll be learning that forever.

Steven Van Zandt

The simple fact is we do not live in a democracy. Certainly not the kind our Founding Fathers intended. We live in a corporate dictatorship represented by, and beholden to, no single human being you can reason with or hold responsible for anything.

Steven Van Zandt

I had the wonderful good luck of having Jimmy Gandolfini as my mentor and David Chase as my godfather, two of the most talented guys in the history of television.

Steven Van Zandt

In my mind, it's always easier to do a sequel than an original.

Steven Van Zandt

The energy that comes when you compel people to dance stays with you your whole career - whether you are playing to 100,000 people at Glastonbury or 1,000 kids in a club.

Steven Van Zandt

Timing really is nearly everything. And what it isn't, circumstance makes up for.

Steven Van Zandt

As an actor just learning the craft, you literally do a scene with Jimmy Gandolfini, and you walk away a better actor.

Steven Van Zandt

Band members have a special bond. A great band is more than just some people working together. It's like a highly specialized army unit, or a winning sports team. A unique combination of elements that becomes stronger together than apart.

Steven Van Zandt

There is an established tradition of actors directing films that have a particular, personal meaning for them - Warren Beatty, Clint Eastwood, Kevin Costner, and most recently George Clooney to name a few. Remarkably, their films share an unusually high percentage of being very good.

Steven Van Zandt

'Sopranos' was a fascinating moment, just catching our whole culture by surprise, a fun ride to be on while I'm learning the craft.

Steven Van Zandt

I'm a real band guy, you know? I'm really good at certain things, and the band stuff is one of them.

Steven Van Zandt

You want everybody to like your work, but when you look at what's fashionable or trendy, it's pretty obvious that I don't exactly fit.

Steven Van Zandt