Lou Reed

But I’m also talented and I know when I created something great and Perfect Night is something great, no doubt, no but.

I’m in this business for too long to be halfhearted about anything.

Perfect Night is minimalistic and that’s what makes it so forceful.

Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony.

I think life is far too short to concentrate on your past. I rather look into the future.

The most important part of my religion is to play guitar.

Music was what bothered me, what interested me.

I always thought martial arts was the most modern choreography we could have right now, and I always wanted to put it to music.

I don’t think I’m in any position to call myself a martial artist. I’m a student of the martial arts.

I always believed that I have something important to say and I said it.

I love Ornette Coleman. I love Don Cherry. I love the way those guys play.

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.

Some even claim that I’m a terror, a dictator and they’re right.

I cleaned up my act because otherwise I would have kicked the bucket.

That’s why I survived because I still believe I’ve got something to say.

There’s a bit of magic in everything, and some loss to even things out.

I can concentrate on my art.

I don’t know anyone actually who does care what a critic says.

There’s only X amount of time. You can do whatever you want with that time. It’s your time.

If it has more than three chords, it’s jazz.

I think it’s pretentious to create art just for the sake of stroking the artists ego.

You can’t ask me to explain the lyrics because I won’t do it.

I’m an artist and that means I can be as egotistical as I want to be.

I don’t like nostalgia unless it’s mine.

When I record an album I’m trying to get as close as possible to that perfect moment.

I’m too old to do things by half.

I tried to give up drugs by drinking.

These are really terribly rough times, and we really should try to be as nice to each other as possible.

Perfect Night has that magic and it has the raw energy that grabs you by the throat.

The music business doesn’t interest me anymore.

One of my rules is: Never listen to your old stuff.

I don’t like overdubs, never liked them.

My God is rock’n’roll.

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.

I think that everything happens for a reason, everything happens when it’s going to happen.

How can anybody learn anything from an artwork when the piece of art only reflects the vanity of the artist and not reality?

Take a walk on the wild side.

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.

I don’t believe in dressing up reality. I don’t believe in using makeup to make things look smoother.

Me, I’ve concentrated on music pretty much to the exclusion of other things.