Much of songwriting is simply a mystery.
PAUL SIMONPeople often called us perfectionists, but we were not looking for perfection. We were looking for some kind of magic in the music.
More Paul Simon Quotes
-
-
Maybe the heart is part of the mist. And that’s all that there is or could ever exist. Maybe and maybe and maybe some more. Maybe’s the exit that I’m looking for.
PAUL SIMON -
Someone could walk into this room and say your life is on fire.
PAUL SIMON -
Was a sunny day, not a cloud in the sky. Not a negative word was heard.
PAUL SIMON -
I feel I should try to reveal. When you hit it right, you produce an emotional response in the listener that can be cathartic. When you’re wrong, you’re soppy, sentimental.
PAUL SIMON -
Take two bodies and you twirl them into one, their hearts and their bones, and they won’t come undone.
PAUL SIMON -
I like them all. They’re all pictures of me when I wrote them. I have no favorite songs.
PAUL SIMON -
These are the days of miracle and wonder.
PAUL SIMON -
It’s very helpful to start with something that’s true. If you start with something that’s false, you’re always covering your tracks. Something simple and true, that has a lot of possibilities, is a nice way to begin.
PAUL SIMON -
I was eating in a Chinese restaurant downtown. There was a dish called Mother and Child Reunion. It’s chicken and eggs. And I said, I gotta use that one.
PAUL SIMON -
I don’t feel any pressure from fans. But I’m always in some kind of state of emotional turmoil. I would not describe myself as happy-go-lucky. That’s not to say that I’m not happy.
PAUL SIMON -
I have my books and my poetry to protect me.
PAUL SIMON -
All lies and jests, still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.
PAUL SIMON -
You know, life is what you make of it- so beautiful or so what.
PAUL SIMON -
Then she kissed me and I realized she probably was right, there must be fifty ways to leave your lover.
PAUL SIMON -
Time, time, time, see what’s become of me, While I looked around, For my possibilities; I was so hard to please
PAUL SIMON -
The dialogue between what’s going on in the world and what’s going on internally seems to be a natural thing – well, it’s natural to me, anyway, to have these thoughts.
PAUL SIMON -
The abstract music is just more interesting because it doesn’t really have anything to say, but if it is good, it creates thoughts and feelings, and I enjoy that. For me, once the music creates those thoughts and feelings, I begin to write a song about it.
PAUL SIMON -
No one dare disturb the sound of silence.
PAUL SIMON -
I’ve got nothing to do today but smile.
PAUL SIMON -
Lord, I am a surgeon and music is my knife. It cuts away my sorrow and purifies my life.
PAUL SIMON -
The trick is, as I know it, is to care like hell and not give a damn at the same time.
PAUL SIMON -
Just slip out the back, Jack, make a new plan, Stan, you don’t need to be coy, Roy, just get yourself free. Hop on the bus, Gus, you don’t need to discuss much, just drop off the key, Lee, and get yourself free.
PAUL SIMON -
It’s actually very difficult to make something both simple and good.
PAUL SIMON -
Improvisation is too good to leave to chance.
PAUL SIMON -
My whole artistic life has always been about change, change, change, move on, move on. It’s the only thing I find interesting.
PAUL SIMON -
There are two sorts of people in the world: Those who listen and those who are thinking about what they are going to say next.
PAUL SIMON