It's important to have a life and spend time outside of those things [music and politics], in order to appreciate what you've achieved as far as just spending time with people you love, and doing things like painting.
Eddie VedderWell there's a lot of machines making music today too so you should expect perfection from them! Other than that it's humans programming it which is actually why i still like it. But yeah, that sounds about right. Now what I've got to do is I've got to stop expecting it of myself.
Eddie VedderYou don't love me. If you really knew me, you wouldn't love me. You love who you think I am. And don't pretend that you know me. Because I don't even know myself.
Eddie VedderYou kill yourself and you make a big old sacrifice and try to get your revenge. That all you're gonna end up with is a paragraph in a newspaper. In the end, it does nothing. Nothing changes. The world goes on and you're gone. The best revenge is to live on and prove yourself.
Eddie VedderThings like guitars and ukuleles, you should never part with it, because there will probably be good, healthy times spent, just playing and writing.
Eddie VedderIf I'm not on tour or in the studio, I'm in nature somewhere, usually some kind of ocean. Playing music has afforded me that. It's not lost on me that it's a tremendous opportunity to be able to spend your life being surrounded by nature.
Eddie VedderI had a long talk with Bruce Springsteen on a rooftop during the Vote for Change tour (in 2004). And it boiled down to this: That guy you used to be, he’s still in the car. He’ll always be in the car. Just don’t let him drive. He might be shouting out directions. But whatever you do, don’t let him get behind the wheel.
Eddie VedderIt's fun singing with other people who are really good singers. There's something kind of poignant about braiding a couple vocals.
Eddie VedderThe interesting thing is that it seems like George W. Bush would have been happy being the president of anything. He could have been president of Major League Baseball.
Eddie VedderI just think that all of us in this room should have a voice in how the USA is represented. And he don't allow us our voice, that's all I'm saying.
Eddie VedderYou have to be able to grow and move with the organism that is the music industry. You need to maintain flexibility. Ownership of your own stuff is key and then you're able to dictate on a present-terms basis what would be the most effective way to protect yourself and what you've created. You also don't want to lock yourself into a situation where a major label owns part of your touring and merchandise.
Eddie VedderI still think that with any candidate, whoever gets elected, there are going to be certain issues or platforms that those who feel strongly can work with him on. You can't be perfect. You can't be the perfect father. You can't be the perfect singer. You can't be the perfect president.
Eddie VedderLeave it to me as I find a way to be Consider me a satellite, forever orbiting I knew all the rules, but the rules did not know me Guaranteed
Eddie VedderAt some point, when you read about this factual information that comes out in The New Zealand Herald and it's barely mentioned in The New York Times, then I think you've got to question where this is being manipulated, and where the filters are.
Eddie VedderDo you force your kids to pay attention to what's going on, or do you let them live their lives outside of it? My hope is that my child is a strong activist. That would make me most proud.
Eddie VedderWe're not going to be the coolest rock stars in the world. We're trying to be good musicians.
Eddie VedderI learned so much about music by playing this little, miniature songwriting machine [ukulele], especially about melody. The motto is less strings more melody.
Eddie VedderIt's understandable why someone would like their entertainment to provide an escape from modern day worries and the reality of war. We feel this record creates a healthy opportunity to process some of these emotions rather than deny them.
Eddie VedderIs it O.K. that I speak in English? The only thing I know in Dutch is how to order pot.
Eddie VedderI just don't understand, if they see numbers [of CEO salaries]that represent people, how they can somehow skirt around that and morally justify taking or ruining those lives and leaving them with nothing. That, to me, is violent crime. It's certainly more violent than selling grams of pot to other adults.
Eddie VedderThis is still a young man's game, so we have to stay young. Music allows you to do that, especially rock'n'roll.
Eddie VedderI don't work so hard at trying to get every song to be three-dimensional and mean so much. I just want to breathe, right now, with the music.
Eddie VedderWind in my hair, I feel part of everywhere Underneath my being is a road that disappeared Late at night I hear the trees, they're singing with the dead Overhead.
Eddie VedderI was living on the wrong side of the tracks in Evanston, Illinois, in a home for boys. We had these Jackson 5 records. I really related to their voices - they were about my age, but they were doing it.
Eddie VedderIt seems like every time I start to feel good, something really awful happens. It's like... it's really terrible.
Eddie VedderI just have this deep kind of connection to reality of being like... in a way, I feel like a dock worker. I want to stay in connection with my dock-worker side, 'cause that's how I grew up.
Eddie VedderThere's been times when I've been standing in a line at a movie and someone's hit me with something really heavy about someone really close and how our music has helped them get through it. Even in our darkest moments we try and find something beautiful.
Eddie VedderIt's more like you write what comes to you... You try to reflect the mood of the songs. Take 'Rearviewmirror', we start off with the music and it kinds of propels the lyrics. It made me feel like I was in a car, leaving something, a bad situation. There's an emotion there. I remembered all the times I wanted to leave.
Eddie VedderThe word religion has such bad connotations for me, that it's been responsible for wars, and it shouldn't be that way at all, it's just the way the meaning of the word has evolved to me. I have to wonder what we did on this planet before religion.
Eddie VedderIt's saying, just stop, and be together. Don't talk now, just breathe and feel each other's presence.
Eddie Vedder