Steve Winwood

Music is the great arbiter of the world, the key to central harmony and a necessary requirement of human emotion.

Its all about finding the right note at the right place and knowing when to leave it alone.

I work very hard at being the best musician I can be because I love it.

I get interested in the various ways that music is being done in the culture, and some of it I like thoroughly enough to want to learn about it. The way I have been successful at doing that is to become part of it.

For a long time I wasn’t listening to music, to the rock and roll stuff on the radio, because it would cause me to get sweaty–it would bring back memories I didn’t want to know about, or I would get that feeling that I’m not alive ’cause I’m not making it. And if it was good, I hated it ’cause I wasn’t doing it. And if it was bad, I was furious ’cause I could’ve done it better…

I never believed in a set routine. It should depend on how you feel, because you play what you feel.

Through Dizzy and Bird I began to learn about musical structures and the more theoretical aspects of music.

Music should strike fire from the heart of man and bring tears to the eyes of woman.

I sing like I feel.

May your heart always be joyful. May your song always be sung.

I never practice my guitar. From time to time I just open the case and throw in a piece of raw meat.

When rock music came in, I wasn’t bitter about it. I was puzzled.

Forgive me if I don’t have the words. Maybe I can sing it and you’ll understand.

I sought some kind of freedom in music, in the promise of transcendence and the idea that the purity and the innocence of a mythical god could somehow deliver me from darkness.

I let my body play what’s in my heart. I play life instead of notes. I play what I lived.