Paul Simon Quotes

There is a moment, a chip in time, when leaving home is the lesser crime.

Mama, don't take my Kodachrome away.

I won't disturb the slumber of feelings that have died. If I never loved I never would have cried...I am a rock.

I have my books And my poetry to protect me; I am shielded in my armor, Hiding in my room, safe within my womb. I touch no one and no one touches me. I am a rock, I am an island.

The abstract music is just more interesting because it doesn't really have anything to say, but if it is good, it creates thoughts and feelings, and I enjoy that. For me, once the music creates those thoughts and feelings, I begin to write a song about it.

Then she kissed me and I realized she probably was right, there must be fifty ways to leave your lover.

I don't believe what the papers are saying They're just out to capture my dime, Exaggerating this, exaggerating that.

When I look back at all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all.

I'm more interested in what I discover than what I invent.

There are two sorts of people in the world: Those who listen and those who are thinking about what they are going to say next.

The more I get to thinking, the less I tend to laugh.

Every time the industry gets powerful, and corporate thinking dominates what the music is, then the music really pales.

I feel I should try to reveal. When you hit it right, you produce an emotional response in the listener that can be cathartic. When you're wrong, you're soppy, sentimental.

I didn't get how big it was until I went home, turned on the television and saw it on all the news, and later that night on the front pages of all the newspapers. Then I got it.

How can you live in the Northeast?

There must be 50 ways to leave your lover.

She said a good day ain't got no rain She said a bad day is when I lie in the bed And I think of things that might have been

I would be willing to do almost anything to make Art happy. I care about our friendship. The only thing I won't do is change the essence of my work.

My voice is my improvisational instrument, the melody instrument. The guitar is harmonic structure. I'm not a good enough guitarist to improvise on it.

Someone told me it's all happening at the zoo.

One man's ceiling is another man's floor.

Maybe I think too much for my own good.

Breakdowns come, and breakdowns go.

One of the things that upset me was some of the criticism leveled at Simon and Garfunkel. I always took exception to it, but actually I agree with a lot of it.

Music is forever; music should grow and mature with you, following you right on up until you die.

Having a track record to live up to and the history of successes had become a hindrance. It becomes harder to break out of what people expect you to do.

Believing I had supernatural powers, I slammed into a brick wall.

Facts can be turned into art if one is artful enough.

There's something about the sound of a train that's very romantic and nostalgic and hopeful.

Life I love you, all is groovy.

Most of the time, when I had hits as a soloist - maybe not so much with Simon & Garfunkel - I was surprised they were hits. I didn't know what the hits were. I never thought that 'Loves Me Like A Rock' was going to be a hit, or 'Mother And Child Reunion,' or '50 Ways To Leave Your Lover.' They didn't sound like what the hits sounded like at the time. Radio was more open to things that weren't exactly what every other hit was.

Mrs. Robinson is a little dated now, but it has nothing to do with Joe DiMaggio.

I always get very calm with baseball.

I met my old lover on the street last night, she seemed glad to see me.

I don't know what I'm going to write when I begin to write. It feels like you are walking down a path, but you can't see around the bend and you don't know where you are going to go, which is fun.

People ask how I feel about getting old. I tell them I have the same question. I'm learning as I go.

The words come. Usually, it's a long time before they come. And then when they start to come, it doesn't take so long for it to be finished. It takes a long time to begin. And then it sort of gets finished.

I suppose an artist takes the elements of his life and rearranges them and then has them perceived by others as though they were the elements of their lives.

I question what emotion Manilow touches. People are entertained by him. But are they emotionally moved? I don't believe anything that Barry Manilow sings.

A phenomenon occurs but because you're in the middle of it, you just think it's your life-until it's over. And then you look back and say, What an unusual thing happened to me in the '60s.

I get the news I need on the weather report And I have nothing to do today but smile

People talking without speaking,/ People listening without hearing...Sounds of Silence.

Medicine is magical and magical is art, the boy in the bubble, and the baby with the baboon heart.

Nor is it strange That after changes upon changes, we are more or less the same

Just slip out the back, Jack, make a new plan, Stan, you don't need to be coy, Roy, just get yourself free. Hop on the bus, Gus, you don't need to discuss much, just drop off the key, Lee, and get yourself free.

I think my hight had the most significant single effect on my existence, aside from my brain. In fact, it's part of an inferior-superior syndrome. I think I have an inferior brain and an inferior stature, if you really want to get brutal about it.

Artie is a singer, and I'm a writer and player and a singer. We didn't work together on a creative level and prepare the songs. I did that.

The record company stay out of my way. Whenever the record is finished, they take it.