"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." - John Cale, born this day in 1942.
"I've never had a relationship with a record executive. I always went to the record company by someone that liked my playing. Then they would get fired, and I'd be left with the record company. And then - because they got fired - the record company wouldn't do anything for me. I wasn't so interested in being paid. I wanted to be heard. That's why I'm broke." - Ornette Coleman, born this day in 1930.
"I want them to play Britney Spears at my funeral. This way I won't feel so bad about being dead, and everyone there will know there is something worse than death." - Gary Numan
"I have great hope and faith, but it's a humanistic faith based in facts; you have to believe that facts exist. We can all arrive at the same facts if we engage in the process of experimentation, observation, and verification, which can solve more of the world's major problems than a debate over whether God does or doesn't exist." - Greg Graffin
"When I was 14, I used to have a calendar on my wall, crossing the days off until I was 15, because the school leaving age was 15. Then three months before I turned 15, they changed the leaving age to 16. When I was 18, the vision was to make music that didn't exist, because everything else was so unsatisfactory." - Mark E. Smith, born this day in 1957.
"There's a lot of things blamed on me that never happened. But then, there's a lot of things that I did that I never got caught at." - Johnny Cash, born this day in 1932.
"It's being here now that's important. There's no past and there's no future. Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the now. We can gain experience from the past, but we can't relive it; and we can hope for the future, but we don't know if there is one." - George Harrison, born this day in 1943.
"You make music to move people and you don't get to pick who you move. You just don't. It's exclusionary and elitist and I just never felt that way about music, of all things. The great unifier." - Mark Lanegan, lost one year ago today....and I'm still absolutely crushed.
"If you're a sexist, racist, homophobe, or basically an asshole, don't buy this CD. I don't care if you like me, I hate you." - Kurt Cobain, born this day in 1967.
"Watch out for music. It should come with a health warning. It can be dangerous. It can make you feel so alive, so connected to the people around you, and connected to what you really are inside. And it can make you think that the world should, and could, be a much better place. And just occasionally, it can make you very, very happy." - Peter Gabriel, born this day in 1950.
"One of the great gifts of being a human being is that you can get rid of yourself and enter into the oneness of music." - Ray Manzarek, born this day in 1939.
'I've been in some beautiful places, but the prettiest sight is flying back to New Orleans. Being able to look down and say, 'I know where I am now.' - Aaron Neville
"We need balance. We need to balance our inner life with our outer life. Nature is always sitting there waiting to help us, but we have to do the work. Nature is probably the greatest teacher that we'll ever have... the earth and nature." - Dave Davies, born this day in 1947.