Ben Harper Quotes

I really feel there's no limitation on what this band can do in the studio or on the stage. That's an empowering feeling - that we can bring a song to life.

Genetics do play a role in how you consciously or subconsciously manifest your true self.

I love being on the road, I love playing.

I grew up listening to spiritual music, Blind Willie Johnson and folk.

A candle throws its light into the darkness, in a nasty world so shines a good deed. Make sure the fortune that you seek is the fortune that you need.

I'm more afraid of falling than I am of flying high. I'm not as scared of dying as I am of growing old. Every battle has its glory and its consequence.

There's only one proper way a song should go, but you've got to be patient enough to let them come together time wise. Sometimes it's lightning in a bottle and you got the song. But oftentimes it shows up.

Every moral has a story, every story has and end. Every battle has its glory, and its consequence.

Make sure the fortune that you seek is the fortune that you need.

All that we can't say is all we need to hear.

You're living life in real time, man, and we' ve got a good amount of work to do for each other. Hiding is not an option and you're going to step out and you're going to make mistakes.

Just because you have a hit doesn't mean you're good [at music]. Just means you got a hit.

Sometimes I think to talk too much about music almost cheapens it

I grew up with the Blind Boys' music. My family owns a music store in Claremont, California, called The Claremont Folk Music Center. I grew up with a heavy diet of gospel, folk, and blues because those are kind of the cornerstones of traditional American music.

The advice I have for new artists is this - write great songs and play them live as often as possible. Get residencies all over town and crush it.

The good news is at this point as I get older, the load has gotten heavier but my shoulders have gotten wider because I've gotten happier so it's a damn good thing.

When it comes to partnership, some humans can make their lives alone - it's possible. But creatively, it's more like painting: you can't just use the same colours in every painting. It's just not an option. You can't take the same photograph every time and live with art forms with no differences.

It's so hard to do and so easy to say but sometimes you just have to walk away

We figured you could download live shows for days, so we decided to go for a cream-of-the-crop approach, but not just take the best vocal or the best performances.

What enables me to believe in anything is hope.

As a songwriter, I don't rush. I may sit on lyrics for two years before the music hits.

If you don't like my fire, then don't come around. Cause I'm gonna burn one down.

It turns out that there is something more magnificent than nature. It's love.

There's no love like a lost love and no pain like a broken heart.

If you're gonna live, then live it up.

Music is the last true voice of the human spirit. It can go beyond language, beyond age, and beyond color straight to the mind and heart of all people.

If it comes out sounding like Dixieland jazz or classical or punk or rock or even slightly metal, that's because that's where I'm going to find inspiration.

I appreciate that something I've done has found a safe place to land.

We've all got stardust in our bones.

We're always moving forward in different places physically and psychologically.

The spirit is what guides my life, and I'm humbly on my knees in thanks for guidance and direction every day. But God is not something to be preached, it's something to be lived.

Fearlessness, absolutely. Discipline. You also need open-minded creativeness that lets everything in. You never want to lose a word or a phrase, yet every one should count. Always the best language possible. And, finally, knowing when to leave it alone. Stop when it's done.

Sometimes I may be totally arrogant, sometimes I may totally be the most humble guy you've ever met, sometimes I may be in between. But that's life. Who isn't like that? What's the big deal if I had an arrogant moment.

The Blind Boys are truly the deepest well of American musical heritage you can discover.

They say time will make all this go away. But it's time that has taken my tomorrows and turned them into yesterdays.

Don't let what you have to heal from blind you to how much there is to heal for.

Life's the longest picture you're ever gonna take.

You're definitely a different person at different stages in your life.

I've never made a record that didn't sound better than what was in my head - that's sort of my rule.

The music is in the lead here, and a large part of this, I have no idea what I'm doing. I feel a closer bond with the craft of songwriting, stronger than I ever have.

I knew a girl, her name was Truth. She was a terrible liar.

I don't kid myself in thinking that I'm on the front lines. I know the people who are on the front lines. I mean there are people in some freakin' significant places making on-the-ground social front line change. I've marched. I've put feet on the ground for what I believe and what I'm against with no compromise. And there are people who are risking a whole hell of a lot more than me to make change, that's for damn sure.

I write songs and I sing them from the deepest part of my existence and I hope they connect with the deepest part of yours.

People say, "How do you write songs?" I say, "Patience." I may have a track that's hot, but no words. I'll just let it sit for years, because I know they're going to meet. They'll find it.

There's so much there, there's so much to heal for.

Of all the states of emotion I've ever been in, music takes me to the strongest state of emotion the quickest, of any other sort of state of mind I've ever been in or been put in by any substance or circumstance, music brings me to an emotional state of being faster than anything I've ever known

My main concern when travelling around the world is finding a place to skateboard!

As long as the songs are strong, I think you can express yourself in any style and have it be soulful and have it be your own voice.