Paul Simon Quotes

I'm always going forward toward something, and that something is usually an album, because I like to record. I probably like to record more than I like to write.

I don't really know why an idea comes to me. But all of a sudden, an idea comes and from experience I can intuit what something means when an interesting line pops up. Or I can intuit what an interesting choice might be. And I can try a couple of different choices, and see which one feels right, and then continue the song to see where it goes.

Every generation throws a hero up the pop charts.

Although I was able to study music with teachers, I never studied lyric writing. I read poetry, and I read other lyricists. But they were never writing in the style or the form that I was interested in.

We've survived by believing our life is going to get better.

And so you see I have come to doubt -All that I once held as true ~ I stand alone without beliefs -The only truth I know is you

So I'll continue to continue to pretend my life will never end, and flowers never bend with the rainfall.

Most of the time, the songs have jokes in them, little sarcastic things, or purposely kitsch or something. So that's going along with a story, like I do in life, just talking to myself and making fun of stuff and laughing at stuff that's serious. And sometimes it's a good idea to put the laughing into the songs. Sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's all right just to be serious. But most of the songs have some kind of joke in them.

The thought that life could be better is woven indelibly into our hearts and our brains.

And you read your emily dickinson, And I my robert frost. And we note our place with bookmarkers That measure what weve lost.

I am just a poor boy, though my story's seldom told, and I have squandered my resistance, for a pocket full of mumbles, such are promises. All lies in jest, still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest...la-la-la-la-la-la-la-lala-la-la-la-la...

The degree of customization possible through your Preferences screens is awesome.

Time it was And what a time it was, it was A time of innocence A time of confidences Long ago it must be I have a photograph Preserve your memories They're all that's left you

I don't think [Dylan and the Beatles] influenced me a lot. I think it was inevitable; they were so powerful that you couldn't really escape the influence.

Why am I so soft in the middle when the rest of my life is so hard?

I want to rid my heart of envy, and cleanse my soul of rage before I'm through.

Somewhere in a burst of glory / Sound becomes a song.

Elvis was the reason I picked up the guitar.

It's outrageous to line your pockets off the misery of the poor; It's outrageous, the crimes some human beings must endure.

I really don't know what exactly all the songs mean. Sometimes other people have meanings and when I hear them I think, 'That's really a better meaning than I thought, and perfectly valid, given the words that exist.' So part of what makes a song really good is that people take in different meanings, and they apply them, and they might be more powerful than the ones I'm thinking.

You sit and you let your fingers go to wherever they are going to go. You wait until you start to hear something, and you start to figure out what it is that you're doing. And then you add another piece next to that piece, and wait to see if some kind of pattern or something interesting starts to grow, and then you cultivate it.

As soon as your mind knows that it's on and it's supposed to produce some lines, either it doesn't or it produces things that are very predictable. And that's why I say I'm not interested in writing something that I thought about. I'm interested in discovering where my mind wants to go, or what object it wants to pick up.

I don't really like to write at a desk. I like to write when driving in a car. ... Once you're working on it, you're working on it all the time, and sometimes stuff'll come in the middle of the night, in a dream or something. Your mind is working on it all the time.

Someone could walk into this room and say your life is on fire.

I don't very often think I've done a good job. I don't like the majority of what I do. I shouldn't say I don't like it, but I'm not satisfied with almost everything that I do.

The death penalty is reserved for people who do not

Couple in the next room bound to win a prize, they've been going at it all night long.

Blessed are the sat upon, spat upon, ratted on.

I've got nothing to do today but smile.

It's very helpful to start with something that's true. If you start with something that's false, you're always covering your tracks. Something simple and true, that has a lot of possibilities, is a nice way to begin.

The dialogue between what's going on in the world and what's going on internally seems to be a natural thing - well, it's natural to me, anyway, to have these thoughts.

The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenements halls and whispered in the sounds of silence.

Cecilia was made in a living room on a Sony. It was like a little piece of magical fluff, bur it works. El Condor Pasa a Los Incas record that I love. Bridge is a very strong melodic song.

When I began making my own albums, the songs became funkier. They were more about the streets.

Hide it in a hiding place where no one ever goes Put it in your pantry with your cupcakes

I think Bridge Over Troubled Water was a very good song. Artie sang it beautifully. The Boxer was a really nice record. But I don't think I've written any great songs.

You know, life is what you make of it- so beautiful or so what.

A songwriter's supreme challenge is being complex and simple at the same time

The leaves that are green turn to brown. And they wither with the wind. And they crumble in your hand.

Who am I to blow against the wind?

Who's gonna love you when your looks are gone?

I'm going to Graceland, for reasons I cannot explain. There's some part of me wants to see Graceland. And I may be advised to defend every love, every ending, or maybe there's no obligations now. Maybe I've a reason to believe we all will be received in Graceland.

My whole artistic life has always been about change, change, change, move on, move on. It's the only thing I find interesting.

The only time that love is an easy game is when two other people are playing it.

All I've got to do today is smile.

It was easier than explaining DiMaggio's use as a metaphor.

I sort of recognize it, as opposed to shaping it. Oh, that's a good idea, that's a good line. I wonder where I can use that. And when you get into a rhyme group like 'not,' you got a lot of rhymes, you got a lot of choices. The more you do it, the luckier you get.

A man walks down the street. It's a street in a strange world. Maybe it's the third world. Maybe it's his first time around. He doesn't speak the language. He holds no currency. He is a foreign man. He is surrounded by the sound, sound of cattle in the marketplace, scatterlings and orphanages. He looks around, around he sees angels in the architecture spinning in infinity and he says, "Amen" and "Hallelujah!