John Cale Quotes

Time plays a role in almost every decision. And some decisions define your attitude about time.

The only reason we wore sunglasses onstage was because we couldn't stand the sight of the audience.

Even if you're improvising, the fact that beforehand you know certain things will work helps you make those improvisations successful. It really helps to have a certain amount of knowledge about musical structure.

The avant-garde makes more sense to me.

If you're all loaded up on love, you haven't got anywhere else to go.

I missed out on my teenage years. I led a sheltered life. I was practicing scales instead of going out there and playing football.

If I'm interested in what I'm doing, other people will be interested in it.

What I enjoy most about being on stage is that the natural instruments give you a greater freedom with texture. When you use natural instruments they have their own resonance.

I want to get lean and mean, keep it minimalist.

Everyone should be encouraged...in spiration and artistic freedom is the cornerstone of rock and roll.

I learn from thinking about the future, what hasn't been done yet. That's kind of my constant obsession.

In cities like New York and Austin, there's much more of a social context for music than in other places.

When somebody grabs a movement, you're kind of locked into it. It's all par for the course.

Growing up in Wales was a pretty Draconian experience with religion.

I am a ham. I've no business being rock 'n' roll. I've said it over and over again that I'm a classical composer, dishevelling my personality by dabbling in rock 'n' roll.

I like what the future holds. I don't like thinking about the past.

I've just recently started doing the promo bits for the new album, and the funny thing is that the people who come to talk to me about these things seem to be getting younger. It's like the people who like the music are all young kids and they're on top of you - they know all about what you're doing, and they're excited and animated about it. So it's a lot of fun.

I'm writing a movie about Mozart going to New York in the '60s. I've been reading so many novels.

The value of having a computer, to me, is that it'll remember everything you do. It's a databank.

I'm content with making records, but I don't want to be doing the same thing all the time.

There are a few people that I always say, "Hey, what do you think of this?" The minute that you know that you want this particular person to hear it, you know that you're pretty much done - although you're doing it to hear some feedback. It's a smart move to know whose ears you want.

There was a time where I was the youngest one in any group, and now when I turn around sometimes, I'm the oldest one in every group. It just seemed to flip-flop one day - it wasn't a gradual thing.

I write in the studio, I don't sit around with a piano or a guitar and write songs. I get satisfaction out of that because I can finish the song really quickly. I can use whatever momentum I have. I've got to put it down, develop it, and get it as far [as I can], because the excitement of the moment of when you get that idea - you want to try and hold it and build on it and really gain strength from it. Being in the studio and writing songs like that is really the best way.

That's what my life is, writing songs.

It would be a stronger world, a stronger, loving world, to die in.

In the studio you have pretty much carte blanche with whatever you're doing. You can turn natural instruments into electronic instruments.

I never use the word, it's loaded. What love means to me is need.

We gave up on the idea of trying to make the record a good representation of the live performance.

People sort of know me for that solo piano music I did.

I'm impatient. I get twitchy. When I get that feeling I just go out and make something happen.

I like it here in New York. I like the idea of having to keep eyes in the back of your head all the time.