Van Morrison Quotes

There's no man alive who has any answers. We all know that. It's like the guru trip. All a guru can do is direct you to something that you probably already know about yourself, something you might want to followup on. Apply the same thing to music and records. You might get something from a particular record that hits a nerve and something inside you. But that's your vision of it.

I haven't really heard much that's impressed me the way it was when I first heard Ray Charles or somebody like that. That was really an impression.

Become enraptured by the sights and sounds in intrigue of nature and beauty, come along with me and take it all in. Come here my love.

The first piece of music that captured my imagination was probably Ray Charles Live At Newport.

The whole trip that happened in the late 60s and 70s was kind of a throwback to a lot of folk styles. I got into it as well 'cause I started with the folk styles.

I was all caught up with identifying with certain things. They just weren't very stimulating things.

I'd love to live in Ireland but I'd like to live as me, not what someone thinks I am. People don't understand - I lived there before I was famous.

Hearing the blues changed my life.

The wild night is calling.

I deliberately try not to cater for the commercial market, so I can't see myself in competition, you know, with second or third generation rock stars.

Memories, how they linger in the twilight and in the wee small hours sometimes just before dawn.

If my heart could do my thinking, would my brain begin to feel?

There's a lot of sub-conscious stuff you may write but you don't then suddenly sit down and take out your analytical books and say: I'm determined to find out where this came from. You'd probably be wrong anyway.

The job of the jazz people is to take it as far as it will go and that's what they're doing. But in the process of taking it out there, there has to be some times when they're not getting it right. It all depends on what you dig. I personally don't think the fusion of jazz with the heaviness of rock is working.

Music is spiritual. The music business is not.

You have to remember that writing those sorta songs is not reality, it's more like trance, dream, y'know, like dreamwork. The mythical thing can enter the creating but there's the mythical place and the real place. And there's both...I get it between waking and sleeping. Or, when I'm doing something else. I don't sit down and think I'm gonna write about subject X or subject Y. I could be doing something and an impression comes in from outside and the song emerges out of that. It's never thought about or contrived.

I just need somewhere to dump all my negativity.

That's what it is-it's jazz. It's just jazz. That's what the whole thing is about to me. It's about what's happening right now in this context. This conversation is jazz to a certain extent. It's improvisation. What appeals to me about music is the improvization. That's what I don't like about the media-they're not living it.

This Hollywood ain't no good, I would rather be like Robin Hood.

There is no black-and-white situation. It's all part of life. Highs, lows, middles.

I understood jazz, I understood how it worked. That's what I apply to everything.

A lot of things come together to make up a song. It's just images.

Let me purify my thoughts and words and deeds that I may be a vehicle for thee.

Once you start to analyze it [Joyous Sound], you've completely lost it. That one just came.

I find it extremely difficult talking about my songs because there's so many different things that can make a song come together.

It's like something happened to you that caused you to do what you do...you heard something somewhere, you felt something about this music that was definitely part of your own vision. That's what the whole thing is like.

I just like any music to swing, no matter what it is.

Performing was the natural thing originally and the rest of it [records and so on] is just like offshoots of that. That's how I see it anyway.

From the dark end of the street - To the bright side of the road - We'll be lovers once again on the - Bright side of the road

You come into my dreams from a whisper to a scream.

I write songs. Then I record them. And later, maybe I perform them on stage. That's what I do. That's my job. Simple. I don't feel comfortable doing interviews. My profession is music, and writing songs. I like to do it, but I hate to talk about it...Music is spiritual. The music business is not. Being famous was extremely disappointing for me. When I became famous it was a complete drag and it is still a complete drag.

There's always stress involved in any genre or art form, there's always going to be a struggle. If there's no struggle, you wouldn't do anything. What are you going do? Retire?

Any artist is an instrument-and that's exactly why you can't do it all the time. You can only do it when it's happening, when it's coming through. No matter how much you may want to do it, if it's not happening then it's simply not happening.

I also like to do physical things. I like swimming a lot. I like traveling. Not touring traveling but just plain traveling. I also read a lot. Reading takes up most of my time.

You can call it nostalgia, I don't mind Standing on that windswept hillside Listening to the church bells chime Listen to the church bells chime In that magic time.

I just wanted to have a look at my whole musical career, get right back to when I started and why I started doing it in the first place.

I never bought the commercial thing, at any stage of the game.

When I started out in this business, I was a performer before I was a songwriter, I was a performer before I was recording. Performing is the roots. That's where it all came from. You didn't start out doing it because you wanted to make an album.

Even today, skiffle is a defining part of my music. If I get the opportunity to just have a jam, skiffle is what I love to play.

Sometimes you do know where the ideas are coming from and sometimes you don't. You might get a song coming through that you just don't know about.