Lou Reed

I never heard of a Jazz musician who retired. You love what you do, so what are you going to do… play for the walls?

Being a musician is what I do, but it’s not what I am.

I don’t really live like a musician myself. I think music is just something that I do, but I’d like to be doing lots of other things. I like to cure all kinds of illness.

Music is the most interesting thing in the world.

Just to keep it interesting I’ll tune the guitar randomly, so I don’t know what’s going to come out.

I like an element of chaos in music. That feeling is the best thing ever.

Improvisation is the ability to talk to oneself.

You don’t know what you like, you like what you know. In order to know what you like, you have to know everything.

And there is a time where you can be beyond yourself. You can be better than your technique. You can be better than most of your usual ideas. And this is a whole other category that you can get into.

Music was our wife, and we loved her. And we stayed with her, and we clothed her, and we put diamond rings on her hands.

I always make it a point to pick songs on which players really shine.

I decided that I would be one of the biggest new names; and I actually had some little fancy business cards printed up to announce it, ‘Count Basie. Beware, the Count is Here.

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

If you think it, want it, dream it… then it’s real. You are what you feel.

The hippest thing you can do is not play at all. Just listen.