63 Neil Young Quotes

Neil Young quotes

1. 'Where the eagle glides ascending / There's an ancient river bending / Through the timeless gorge of changes / Where sleeplessness awaits' - ''Thrasher' (Rust Never Sleeps, 1978)

2. 'Old man, look at my life, 24 and there's so much more, live alone in a paradise that makes me think of 2.' Old Man

3. 'What is the color when black is burned?' - 'I Am a Child'

4. 'If you guarantee the postage, I'll mail you back the key.' - 'The Last Trip to Tulsa'

5. 'I guess I'll call it sickness gone' - 'Ambulance Blues', referring to the drug related death of bandmate Danny Whitten

6. 'I have seen you in the movies, and in those magazines at night. I saw you on the barstool, when you held that glass so tight.' - 'Barstool Blues'

7. 'Well, I see you give more than I can take / Will I only harvest some? / As the days fly past will we lose our grasp / Or fuse it in the sun? / Did she wake you up to tell you that / It was only a change of plan? /Dream up, dream up, let me fill your cup / With the promise of a man.' - 'Harvest'

8. 'I never believed in much, but I believed in you.' - 'From Hank to Hendrix'

9. 'The same thing that makes you live can kill you in the end.' - 'From Hank to Hendrix'

10. 'It's better to burn out than to fade away.' - 'My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)', quoted by Kurt Cobain in his suicide note.

11. 'Shelter me from the powder and the finger / Cover me with the thought that pulled the trigger.' - 'Powderfinger'

12. 'There is a town in north Ontario / With dream comfort memory to spare / And in my mind, I still need a place to go / All my changes were there.' - 'Helpless'

13. 'In my little box / At the top of the stair / With my Indian rug / And a pipe to share.' - 'Pocahontas'

14. 'A sparkle was in his eye, but his life was in his hand' - 'Tonights the Night'

15. 'It's a cold bowl of chili when love lets you down' - 'Saddle Up the Palomino'

16. 'Need distraction / Need romance and candlelight / Need random violence / Need entertainment tonight / Need the evidence / Want the testimony of / Expert witnesses / On the brutal crimes of love' - 'I'm the Ocean'

17. 'The economy was getting so bad, I had to lay myself off.' - Old Ways (1986)

18. 'And we'll be watching you / No matter what you do / And you can do your part / By watchin' others too.' - 'Leave the Driving'

19. 'You're all just pissin' in the wind / You don't know it but you are.' - 'Ambulance Blues'

20. 'Don't feel like Satan but I am to them.' - 'Rockin' in the Free World'

21. 'We got a thousand points of light for the homeless man, we got a kinder, gentler machine gun hand.' - 'Rockin' in the Free World'

22. 'Welfare mothers make better lovers.' - 'Welfare Mothers'

23. 'Live music is better! Bumper stickers should be issued!' - 'Union Man'

24. 'Southern man better keep your head, don't forget what your good book said.' - 'Southern Man'

25. 'Man, that's my style!' -- When asked by the producer of 'Tears Are Not Enough' (the Canadian counterpart to 'We Are The World') to sing his line again because it sounded 'a little flat'.

26. 'You gotta keep changing. Shirts, old ladies, whatever.'

27. 'It's all one song.' -- Replying to a man in the audience, who said 'It all sounds the same!'

28. 'Smell the horse on this one <sniff><sniff>' -- While performing with Crazy Horse

29. 'Getting sued by your record company for making 'uncommercial records' after twenty years in the business, that's even better than receiving a Grammy' -- After Geffen Records had accused him of making 'albums impossible to promote'.

30. 'Heart of Gold put me in the middle of the road. Travelling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride, but I saw more interesting people there.' -- Expressing his disdain for the fame that he received from his song Heart of Gold

31. 'I can't play that without the band... Don't worry, I came prepared. This is a big gig for me.' -- Replying to a request from the audience during a February 27, 1971 solo show at Royal Festival Hall, London.

32. 'As soon as you start talking about mystique, you have none.' -- Interview for Rolling Stone magazine.

33. 'I am Stephen Stills.' -- Replying to a audience member who yelled for his fellow CSNY member at a show in 1978.

34. 'Shut up white boy!' -- Replying to a loud heckler at United Palace Theatre in New York City, December 18, 2007.

35. 'You better see a doctor.' -- Replying to a fan who said 'Neil Young makes the pain go away' at United Palace Theatre in New York City, December 18, 2007.

1. A lot of people that buy vinyl today don’t realise that they’re listening to CD masters on vinyl and that’s because the record companies have figured out that people want vinyl, And they're only making CD masters in digital, so all the new products that come out on vinyl are actually CDs on vinyl, which is really nothing but a fashion statement.

2. Let's roll for justice, let's roll for truth. Let's not let our children grow up fearful in their youth.

3. Don't feel like Satan, but I am to them. And I try to forgive them anyway I can.

4. I never knew a man could tell so many lies, he had a different story for every set of eyes. How can he remember who he's talking to?

5. It's the woman in you that makes you want to play this game.

6. Keep it moving. Don't hoard. Money's no good, get rid of it. Turn it into people doing things. Turn it into jobs. Turn it into happiness...The more people I employ, the happier I am - that means my money's goin' into other people's lives, and if I can give 'em something to create that they can be happy with, that's great.

7. My dad passed away...and suddenly I found myself at the top of the tree and looking at the sky instead of at my mom and dad.

8. The Arabic states have to be integrated into the Iraqi reconstruction. We need the help of the Arabic community, which understands its culture. Americans arrive, invade, occupy.

9. Said the condor to the preying mantis, we're gonna lose this place just like we lost Atlantis.

10. With Crazy Horse, it's all one big, growing, smoldering sound, and I'm part of it. It's like gliding, or some sort of natural surfing.

11. It doesn't mean that much to me to mean that much to you.

12. Cocaine eyes won't hide your face.

13. Now I'm livin' out here on the beach, but those seagulls are still out of reach.

14. I've always been better moving than I am standing still.

15. Don't think. The worst songs I've ever written happen when I think.

16. There's two kinds of love, one is wrong and one is right.

17. Crazy friends provide for crazy times, and such crazy times we're had.

18. I like to go in right away as soon as I have things.

19. I want to live, I want to give, I've been a miner for a heart of gold.

20. I was a Reagan backer. It was a shock for some people that I could agree with anything that man would say.

21. I don't like war. I particularly don't like the celebration of war, which I think the administration is a little bit guilty of.

22. I totally have no other talent and I would be totally out of work if I did anything else.

23. I like it if people enjoy what I'm doing, but if they don't, I also like it. I sometimes really like aggravating people with what I do. I think it's good for them.

24. Some people put down all presidents. If you say anything good about any of them, they think you're supporting everything they do.

25. To protect our freedoms, it seems we're going to have to relinquish some of our freedoms for a short period of time.

26. We had the Vietnam War in the '60s, and there was a draft. The students didn't believe in it, and it unified them.

27. Down by the river, I shot my baby dead.

28. It's cool to go places where working people are happy.