Robbie Robertson famous quotes

At a young age I thought, 'Wow, that fiddle thing, that's pretty cool. That mandolin is great. These drums, I like these drums ' They were Indian drums. And I was saying, 'But that guitar. That guitar. Girls are going to like that guitar.'
-- Robbie Robertson

#Girl #Guitar #Age

Musical revolutions, I don't know how many I've been through.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Musical #Revolution

You don't stumble upon your heritage. It's there, just waiting to be explored and shared.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Waiting #Heritage #Stumble Upon

Give us the strength, give us the wisdom, and give us tomorrow.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Inspirational #Giving #Tomorrow

I play guitar quite a bit, because I'm always in search of something. I don't play to jam, but because I'm fishing. I'm looking for something, that I hope you can never find. If I do find it, I'm afraid I won't have a need to do this any more.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Fishing #Play #Guitar

I wanted to develop a guitar style where phrases and lines get there just in the nick of time, like with Curtis Mayfield and Steve Cropper. Subtleties mean so much, and there is a stunning beauty in them.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Mean #Guitar #Style

It's a bit of a sore spot, the Thanksgiving in Indian country.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Country #Spots

There is an extraordinary collaborative spirit when you are learning and growing.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Growing #Spirit #Learning And Growing

It's extraordinary that revolutions taking place around the world were sparked by communication on the Internet.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Communication #Around The World #Revolution

People go through periods when things are dark and cloudy, and they talk dark and cloudy.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Dark #People #Periods

Lord please save his soul, he was the king of rock and roll.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Kings #Rock And Roll #Rocks

You fog the mind, you stir the soul.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Fog #Soul #Mind

Say a prayer for the lost generation, who spin the wheel out of desperation.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Prayer #Reality #Generations

Everybody grows in their own way.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Way #Grows

I haven't been to many music events where somebody was performing and it actually made me cry.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Events #Cry #Made

I think, some countries, you have to be dead to have your picture on a stamp.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Country #Thinking #Stamps

I admire those old road dogs, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan. That's their life.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Dog #Bob #Admire

Working on 'The Last Waltz' introduced me to Martin Scorsese, and I had been a movie bug since I was a young kid.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Kids #Bugs #Lasts

When I was younger, I thought I was too young to really be personal. I thought that what I was feeling and thinking might be half-baked.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Thinking #Feelings #Might

I really have to feel a sense of freedom in my storytelling.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Storytelling #Feels

I think the world of Chuck Berry.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Thinking #World #Berries

I like to work on records when I feel inspired, not because it's expected of me.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Records #Inspired #Feels

I don't want to be one of those people saying, 'Remember when things were better?'
-- Robbie Robertson

#People #Want #Remember

By the time I was 13, I was the only one in London, Ontario, who knew how to play rock n' roll.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Play #Rocks #London

It would be nice to abandon the verse-chorus-bridge structure completely, and make it so none of these things are definable...Make up new names for them. Instead of a bridge, you can call it a highway, or an overpass...Music should never be harmless.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Nice #Bridges #Names

While I was there, I was just gathering images and names, and ideas and rhythms, and I was storing all of these things - which I didn't realize I was doing - but I was storing them all in an attic in my mind somewhere. And when it was time to sit down and write songs, when I reached into the attic to see what I was gonna write about, that's what was there.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Song #Writing #Names

It would be nice to abandon the verse-chorus-bridge structure completely, and make it so none of these things are definable. ... Make up new names for them. Instead of a bridge, you can call it a highway, or an overpass. ... Music should never be harmless. ... I remember from my earliest years, people speaking, you know, in a certain kind of rhythm and telling stories and sharing experiences in a way that was different in Indian country than it was other places. And I was really struck by this and obviously very affected by it, because it's always come out in my songs.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Country #Song #Nice

making a noise in this world making a noise in this world you can bet your ass, I won't go quietly making a noise in this world.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Native American #World #Noise

Confused by the big city blues, he didn't know who's life he's leading. Put yourself behind the wheel, see if you can get that feel.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Confused #Reality #Cities

Music should never be harmless.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Music #Should

Bob Dylan is as influential as any artist that there has been.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Artist #Bob #Influential

There's a thing that has happened in the U.S. where the spirit has been beaten so badly and so you feel no unity in the voice of the country.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Country #Voice #Unity

Boy, do I got some stories to tell.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Boys #Stories

I don't like overt traditionalism.
-- Robbie Robertson

We need to have a taste factor in our life. It isn't about what's popular; it's about what's really good.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Needs #Taste

Some people love some music, and they hear it a year later and they think, 'What was I thinking?'
-- Robbie Robertson

#Thinking #Years #People

There's something so healthy about young people speaking up in unity.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Speaking Up #People #Healthy

Some music is supposed to be disposable; that's OK. A lot of music is fun for today, but it isn't supposed to be timeless; it's supposed to be trendy.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Fun #Today #Timeless

I've always been in love with that Delta-flavored music the music that came from Mississippi and Memphis and, especially, New Orleans. When I was 14, I was in a wanna-be New Orleans band in Toronto.
-- Robbie Robertson

#New Orleans #Band #Toronto

There's a bookstore in New York where you could buy scripts, and I got addicted to them because they were easy, quick reads and the pictures were so vivid.
-- Robbie Robertson

#New York #Vivid #Scripts

I'm really lucky because I found myself in a position where I can do whatever I want to do. I can make records, produce records, make movies, or I can do nothing. I'm not a slave to the dollar.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Lucky #Records #Want

Most of my younger Native American friends are not in any way looking for sympathy, and they're not looking to lay guilt on anybody. They have their dignity, and they do what they do.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Native American #Guilt #Way

For years after 'The Last Waltz,' I got all kinds of silly movie offers - or, maybe, not silly, but parts that are not my calling lots of offers to play some wonderful boyfriend.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Silly #Years #Play

That whole lifestyle - make a record, do a tour: I know how to do that. It doesn't interest me.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Records #Lifestyle #Interest

I come from a family who prided themselves, both sides, on memory. And I was told growing up, constantly, that I was born with a really good memory.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Memories #Growing Up #Sides

I'd always thought Cage's 'Root of an Unfocus' would be great in a movie.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Roots #Cages #Would Be

Once you establish a foundation of knowing what the greatest recording artists of all time were Wouldn't you want your kids to know this stuff?
-- Robbie Robertson

#Kids #Artist #Knowing

I love the idea of having a kid who says, 'Yeah, of course I knew about Billie Holiday and Johnny Cash when I was nine years old.'
-- Robbie Robertson

#Holiday #Kids #Years

If I can play one note and make you cry, then that's better than those fancy dancers playing twenty notes.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Play #Dancer #Fancy

I think that there's always great music being made. Always has been, always will be.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Thinking #Great Music #Made

Time is not kind to everything.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Kind

When I was playing with Bob Dylan in, like, 1966, I was, like, 20 years old.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Years #Bob #Dylan

Record making is an extraordinary experience.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Records #Extraordinary

You never know what could be interesting tomorrow.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Interesting #Tomorrow

I try not to think the song to death. The main criteria is if it's working on an emotional level.
-- Robbie Robertson

#Song #Emotional #Thinking