Phil Collins famous quotes

Love can make you do things that you never thought possible
-- Phil Collins

#Love

In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.
-- Phil Collins

#Inspirational #Education #Teacher

I'm not a singer who plays a bit of drums. I'm a drummer that sings a bit.
-- Phil Collins

#Play #Singers #Drummer

Put your faith in what you most believe in.
-- Phil Collins

#Believe

It's actually come as quite a shock to learn just how many people don't like me.
-- Phil Collins

#Music #People

You know, I've released some great records and I've released some dogs. But frankly, the fun is in creating the thing.
-- Phil Collins

#Dog #Fun #Creating

When I go on Japanese Airlines, I really love it because I like Japanese food.
-- Phil Collins

#Travel #Journey #Goes On

When destiny calls you, you've got to be strong. I may not be with you, but you've got to move on.
-- Phil Collins

#Strong #Memories #Moving

The world is in your hands, now use it.
-- Phil Collins

#Positive #Hands #World

There's no magic for getting into the groove... just banging away at it. Sometimes the lyrics come first, sometimes the music.
-- Phil Collins

#Magic #Firsts #Sometimes

I know it shouldn't make a difference, but crossing the dateline, we weren't sure what day it was - it was very strange. Now, I seem to cope with it better.
-- Phil Collins

#Differences #Making A Difference #Strange

I usually hang around the room listening to a bit of last night's show. If there's one available, I go to the steam room every day for my voice. I spend half an hour there and then I eat, because I can't eat later than four o'clock. Then I go for a soundcheck. That's my day.
-- Phil Collins

#Night #Voice #Listening

That's going to be on my headstone: 'He came. He wrote 'In the Air Tonight.' He... died.'
-- Phil Collins

#Air #Tonight

I grew up in the day when the Beatles sold 1 million singles in a week. And all you've got to do now is sell about 10,000 singles and you're in the charts.
-- Phil Collins

#Week #Singles #Grew

Everything has added up to a load that I'm getting tired of carrying. It's gotten so complicated. It's the three failed marriages, and having kids that grew up without me, and it's the personal criticism, of being Mr. Nice Guy, or of divorcing my wife by fax, all that stuff, the journalism, some of which I find insulting.
-- Phil Collins

#Nice #Tired #Kids

I never stopped thinking about the Alamo from that day to this. I'm a huge collector of memorabilia. I've got Davy Crockett's bullet pouch. I've got Colonel Travis's belt.
-- Phil Collins

#Thinking #Bullets #Alamo

You can wipe off that grin, I know where you've been, it's all been a pack of lies.
-- Phil Collins

#Lying #Infidelity #Wipe

Each thing leapfrogs. I do a Genesis project - like now, we're just finishing off an album - and then by the time the album is doing its thing, I could do nothing or I could do a film.
-- Phil Collins

#Albums #Finishing #Film

When we're touring America or Europe, we use our own plane and a great advantage of that is it cuts out an awful lot of time checking in. You literally drive up to the plane, get on and then drive off at the other end.
-- Phil Collins

#Cutting #Europe #America

I'm much happier just to write myself out of the script entirely...
-- Phil Collins

#Writing #Scripts

Would you respect me if I didn't have this gun? Cause without it, I don't get it, and that's why I carry one.
-- Phil Collins

#Philosophy #Gun #Causes

Often there's a BA crew, because half the time we stay at the same hotels, especially in Australia. I can remember spending quite a lot of time with crews around the pool there. They always make themselves known to us.
-- Phil Collins

#Australia #Half #Remember

I suppose Phil Collins offers something for everybody, and in hipdom that's not cool. But in the real world, there's no shame in that at all.
-- Phil Collins

#Real #World #Shame

You know, a song is like a kid. You bring it up. And sometimes something you thought was going to be fantastic, by the time it's finished, is a bit of a disappointment...Beyond a certain point, the music isn't mine anymore. It's yours.
-- Phil Collins

#Song #Disappointment #Kids

Deep inside us we're not that different at all.
-- Phil Collins

#Diversity #Different

I'm not trying necessarily to become a movie star; that wouldn't be bad but that's not the aim. I'm just trying to do interesting things and go into areas where I've not been before.
-- Phil Collins

#Stars #Interesting #Trying

I'm writing new songs for a Broadway version of Tarzan, which is very interesting. I think what I learned from the Brother Bear score side of things, I've brought into the new Tarzan songs. Thinking outside just guitar, bass, drums and keyboards.
-- Phil Collins

#Song #Brother #Writing

If Miles Davis hadn't died it would have been interesting to do an album with him, but there wasn't much else that would have got me into the studio... although Herbie Hancock has just been in touch about doing something and that would be an interesting combination.
-- Phil Collins

#Interesting #Albums #Would Be

It's always been easy with Mark, he's a rock fan and we speak the same language. He's a big Beatles fan too. We worked a lot via CLI calls, though only meeting up once every couple of months.
-- Phil Collins

#Couple #Rocks #Months

No seriously... when there's families, you tend to go back to your room after the gig rather than go for a drink with the other guys. But there's always someone who's got something going, like the tour manager.
-- Phil Collins

#Guy #Gigs #Rooms

There were 'big stars' at the Alamo! Bowie, Crockett! It is a huge political event because it, and the events at Goliad and San Jacinto, changed the look of a map of America. America would be a very different place if Texas had remained Mexican.
-- Phil Collins

#Stars #Texas #America

To see a lot of the smaller labels disappear or get gobbled up by the bigger labels, that's a shame. It was a bit of a shock at first to see the demise of the record stores.
-- Phil Collins

#Records #Demise #Firsts

Before you write - remember that every speech has something of 'you' in the writing. Don't take that away when you write. Be yourself. Be comfortable in your own skin.
-- Phil Collins

#Being Yourself #Communication #Writing

'Urban Renewal' was sweet because I've been - unfairly, I would say - plonked in the middle of the road because of a handful of songs. It came at a good time for me, because you do take a bit of a browbeating and, as you get older, you become better at accepting it and realizing why it happens.
-- Phil Collins

#Song #Sweet #Urban

I never said I was at the Alamo. Someone else said I was at the Alamo. Now I'm a nutter. I don't think that's fair.
-- Phil Collins

#Thinking #Said #Alamo

I don't really listen to music.
-- Phil Collins

#Listening To Music

I don't really belong to that world and I don't think anyone's going to miss me. I'm much happier just to write myself out of the script entirely.
-- Phil Collins

#Writing #Thinking #Missing

I don't own an ABBA album, and I never had the urge to go and buy one. If you're just talking about well crafted pop songs, they were fantastic.
-- Phil Collins

#Song #Talking #Albums

I do that in whatever language of the country I'm in, because the audience appreciate it.
-- Phil Collins

#Country #Appreciate #Language

I can't remember much about the early flights, except that it was ages before we got into First Class.
-- Phil Collins

#Class #Age #Firsts

I am stopping so I can be a full-time father to my two young sons on a daily basis.
-- Phil Collins

#Father #Son #Two

Genesis fans are a religious group!
-- Phil Collins

#Religious #Groups #Fans

The day Tarzan opened in London, I sat in a hotel room and discussed the project in detail.
-- Phil Collins

#London #Rooms #Details

Another time, we had three days off in Australia, so we went out of our way to fly to Ayres Rock.
-- Phil Collins

#Australia #Rocks #Three

And, you know, I never wanted to be a singer.
-- Phil Collins

#Singers #Wanted

I'll have the music, and then I'll just turn the microphone on, press Play and Record and sing. And whatever comes out ends up being the melody.
-- Phil Collins

#Play #Records #Microphones

I just don't think of myself as a star. This is what I do for a living; I'm fortunate that I make ends meet.
-- Phil Collins

#Stars #Thinking #Ends

Beyond a certain point, the music isn't mine anymore. It's yours.
-- Phil Collins

#Certain

I'm just trying to do things that are interesting for me.
-- Phil Collins

#Interesting #Trying

I can't play anywhere near like I used to, and I was a hot drummer. It doesn't bother me, because frankly, if you get to that point where you can't hold a drumstick properly, there are many other things in life which are far more important, like cutting a loaf of bread or a piece of cheese.
-- Phil Collins

#Cutting #Play #Important

As soon as you start making a record, things start getting lined up: the promotion, possibly even a tour.
-- Phil Collins

#Records #Promotion

And I would like to marry and have more children. I would like to try and do it right.
-- Phil Collins

#Children #Trying

I prefer black music in general.
-- Phil Collins

#Black

All I set out to do was to earn a living playing drums, you know? And as luck would have it, I've surpassed that.
-- Phil Collins

#Luck

We stayed in some pretty shabby places in Europe.
-- Phil Collins

#Europe

Take a look at me now, cause there's just an empty space. And you coming back to me is against all odds and that's what I've got to face.
-- Phil Collins

#Space #Odds #Looks

I joined Genesis when I was 19. I've earned the right to actually do nothing. I don't want to be a shadow of what I was, so I've kind of just quite willingly stood back.
-- Phil Collins

#Shadow #Want #Kind

Wait for it, wait for it! Anticipation is half the fun, So I've been told...
-- Phil Collins

#Fun #Waiting #Half

When children see Michael Jackson they see a human being. When adults see him they see money.
-- Phil Collins

#Children #Adults #Humans

Many people think of me as a perfectionist, someone who polishes and shines each song and performance. I've always been bothered by that assumption.
-- Phil Collins

#Song #Thinking #People

Many of the articles printed over the last few months have ended up painting a picture of me that is more than a little distorted.
-- Phil Collins

#Littles #Lasts #Months

It's not often that an English drummer gets an Oscar. So I'm very, very proud of that.
-- Phil Collins

#Oscars #Proud #Drummer

I've spent the last year and a half going through a very public separation, hiding in hotel lobbies.
-- Phil Collins

#Years #Half #Lasts

I've got one of four known Davy Crocket rifles. It's fantastic just to know it's one of the rifles that he actually used. His cousin had it.
-- Phil Collins

#Cousin #Four #Rifles

I'm usually going to make a record, finish a record, start a record or start a tour or between tours.
-- Phil Collins

#Journey #Records

I'm sorry that it was all so successful. I honestly didn't mean it to happen like that. It's hardly surprising that people grew to hate me.
-- Phil Collins

#Sorry #Hate #Mean

On the day of the show, I sit down with someone that speaks very good English and someone who speaks the local language very well and work out what I'm going to say.
-- Phil Collins

#Good Day #Work Out #Language

I'm fascinated by what people will do to each other. Actually, I'm sort of interested in the gory details of life.
-- Phil Collins

#People #Details

My only saving grace is that I actually collect things that nobody else is interested in.
-- Phil Collins

#Grace #Saving

They're the only ones brave enough to give me these opportunities [on being offered a soundtrack!]
-- Phil Collins

#Opportunity #Giving #Brave

In 1977 we played America and Europe three times, and Japan - my marriage suffered as a result. My then wife took the kids to Canada to be near her parents
-- Phil Collins

#Kids #Japan #Europe

To be honest, producing records interests me less at the moment and I really don't want to get involved in album projects that are going to take up a lot of time
-- Phil Collins

#Records #Want #Albums

You'll regret the day you ever messed with Philadelphia Collins and sons
-- Phil Collins

#Regret #Son #Philadelphia

In Genesis we saw ourselves as song-writers. After Peter Gabriel left I was the first to say: 'It's OK - we can just do instrumentals.'
-- Phil Collins

#Song #Gabriel #Saws

I wish I could just make you turn around, turn around and see me cry There's so much I need to say to you, so many reasons why You're the only one who really knew me at all So take a look at me now, 'cos there's just an empty space And there's nothing left here to remind me, just the memory of your face Take a look at me now, 'cos there's just an empty space And you coming back to me is against all odds and that's what I've got to face
-- Phil Collins

#Song #Memories #Space