"We make the oldest stories new when we succeed, and we are trapped by the old stories when we fail"

--

Source : Greil Marcus (2015). “Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll Music: Sixth Edition”, p.22, Penguin

Greil Marcus

#Stories Quotes #Succeed Quotes #Failing Quotes

“It's better to burn out, than to fade away.”
“To understand your fear is the beginning of really seeing.”
“I grew up in Chicago, so I've always been a Bears fan. Dad used to take me to Bears games and Cubs games. My brother used to ride me over to Lake Forest College on his Honda Supersport and we'd watch the Bears practice. I remember those guys out there as monsters - they were the biggest things I've ever seen!”
“Stories about food are stories about us-our history and our values.”
“Thereâ€™s something amazing about this life. The very same worldly attribute that causes us pain is also what gives us relief: Nothing here lasts. What does that mean? It means that the breathtakingly beautiful rose in my vase will wither tomorrow. It means that my youth will neglect me. But it also means that the sadness I feel today will change tomorrow. My pain will die. My laughter wonâ€™t last forever but neither will my tears. We say this life isnâ€™t perfect. And it isnâ€™t. It isnâ€™t perfectly good. But, it also isnâ€™t perfectly bad, either.”
“Playing is much, much harder than composing in my opinion, becoming a player. If you want to be a player for all your life either you decide not to do it professionally and just enjoy it and just do it every weekend, but if you want to be a professional musician- hardest thing I could imagine and I really wasn't capable of doing it.”
“When you meet people at dinner parties, you'll ask what they do and it might be a woman who'll say: "Oh I used to work but I'm only a housewife now." They'll put down what they've achieved, like raising kids. You want to say to people "well you're just a wonderful human, just because I have my gob on the telly and I've made some money, it doesn't make me successful or any better than you."”
“Do people really believe there's something different about the eyes of murderers?”

Source : "The Saturday interview: Justin Welby, Bishop of Durham". Interview with Giles Fraser, www.theguardian.com. July 20, 2012.

You may also like:

Amy Tan
Film writer
Anthony DeCurtis
Author
Bob Dylan
Musician
Ellen Willis
Essayist
Joel Selvin
Music criticism
Lester Bangs
Journalist
Nick Tosches
Journalist
Pauline Kael
Film critic
Sean Wilentz
Professor