There have been times when I’ve written something and it goes out and it comes back in a letter from some kid as to what they think about it and I’ve taken their analysis to heart so much that I have taken up his thing. Writing what my audience is telling me to write.
I was studying Tibetan Buddhism when I was quite young, again influenced by Kerouac.
In my madness I see your face in mine.
Style is about the choices you make to create the aspects of civilization that you wish to uphold.
Ground control to Major Tom.
It’s much easier for me to say that, the kind of music I didn’t listen to was pretty much that. I mean everything, from jazz to classical to popular. And Tibetan horns were a great part of it in 1966, ’67.
Hear this Robert Zimmerman, I wrote a song for you, about a strange young man called Dylan with a voice like sand and glue.
Make the best of every moment. We’re not evolving. We’re not going anywhere.
I could never have done what I did without being involved with Lindsay Kemp’s company.
I liked rock music, I kind of moved into that sphere, somehow thinking that somewhere along the line I’d be able to put the two together. And I suppose I very nearly did with the Ziggy character.
It always felt like you were trying too hard to look like the audience or something. That whole thing about the artistic integrity, which, of course, I’ve never bought into – with any artist. It’s just not a real thing.
I’m very shy. That’s probably one of the reasons I got so heavily into drugs.
It makes me sad when I see artists who come alive when they go onstage, because, gee, I really come alive when I’m home.
The sun machine is coming down, and we’re gonna have a party.
I have to take total control myself. I can’t let anybody else do anything, for I find that I can do things better for me. I don’t want to get other people playing with what they think that I’m trying to do.
When I heard Little Richard, I mean, it just set my world on fire.
I find it easier to write in these little vignettes; if I try to get any more heavy, I find myself out of my league.
The only time that I’ve adopted characterization again since that point, for my own albums, has been an album called “Outside” that I did with Brian Eno .
I’ll place my love beneath the stars.
Don’t let me hear you say life takes you nowhere, angel.