Lou Reed Quotes


"My God is rock'n'roll."
- Lou Reed
(Related: God)

"Music was what bothered me, what interested me."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Music)

"Me, I've concentrated on music pretty much to the exclusion of other things."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Music, Pretty)

"Perfect Night has that magic and it has the raw energy that grabs you by the throat."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Energy, Magic, Night)

"In the late '70s I started to search for the perfect sound - whatever that might be, before that I was mainly interested in drugs, insanity and the rock'n'roll lifestyle."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Drugs, Insanity, Sound)

"The music business doesn't interest me anymore."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Business, Music, Interest)

"If it has more than three chords, it's jazz."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Jazz)

"Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Life)

"Perfect Night is minimalistic and that's what makes it so forceful."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Night)

"Some even claim that I'm a terror, a dictator and they're right."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Right, Terror)

"Take a walk on the wild side."
- Lou Reed
"The most important part of my religion is to play guitar."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Religion, Guitar, Play)

"There's only X amount of time. You can do whatever you want with that time. It's your time."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Time, Want)

"When I record an album I'm trying to get as close as possible to that perfect moment."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Trying)

"You can't ask me to explain the lyrics because I won't do it."
- Lou Reed
"I'm too old to do things by half."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Old)

"There's a bit of magic in everything, and some loss to even things out."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Loss, Magic)

"That's why I survived because I still believe I've got something to say."
- Lou Reed
"These are really terribly rough times, and we really should try to be as nice to each other as possible."
- Lou Reed
"I'm not joking around when I've said occasionally, trying to learn how to play a D chord properly has been a very big thing for me."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Play, Trying)

"I always believed that I have something important to say and I said it."
- Lou Reed
"I always thought martial arts was the most modern choreography we could have right now, and I always wanted to put it to music."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Music, Thought, Now, Right)

"But I'm also talented and I know when I created something great and Perfect Night is something great, no doubt, no but."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Doubt, Night)

"I can concentrate on my art."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Art)

"I cleaned up my act because otherwise I would have kicked the bucket."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Act)

"I don't believe in dressing up reality. I don't believe in using makeup to make things look smoother."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Makeup, Reality)

"I don't know anyone actually who does care what a critic says."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Care)

"I don't like nostalgia unless it's mine."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Nostalgia)

"I don't really think about what the subject of my next album will be. I just know that I'm going to make another album."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Will)

"I don't think I'm in any position to call myself a martial artist. I'm a student of the martial arts."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Artist)

"I love Ornette Coleman. I love Don Cherry. I love the way those guys play."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Love, Play)

"I think it's pretentious to create art just for the sake of stroking the artists ego."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Art, Artists, Ego)

"I think life is far too short to concentrate on your past. I rather look into the future."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Life, Future, Past)

"I think that everything happens for a reason, everything happens when it's going to happen."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Reason)

"I tried to give up drugs by drinking."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Drinking, Drugs)

"I'm in this business for too long to be halfhearted about anything."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Business)

"I'm an artist and that means I can be as egotistical as I want to be."
- Lou Reed
(Related: Artist, Want)

"How can anybody learn anything from an artwork when the piece of art only reflects the vanity of the artist and not reality?"
- Lou Reed
(Related: Art, Artist, Reality, Vanity)

"I don't like overdubs, never liked them."
- Lou Reed