Beck Quotes

I think you have to keep a childlike quality to play music or make a record.

Two men look out the same prison bars; one sees mud and the other stars.

Anything goes. You always find interesting things that way.

I think my whole generation's mission is to kill the cliche.

I think I gave indications early on that mine wasn't just going to be a commercial, er, career. If that were the case, then the first record would have been 10 versions of 'Loser.' I always thought it would be interesting if there was no such thing as gold and platinum records, or record deals, and people were just making music. What would the music sound like?

Your heart is a drum keeping time with everyone.

I think everybody should just turn off their TV machines and make up their own songs about whatever comes to mind-their couch, their friends their loaves of bread. Everybody's got their own songs. There should be so many songs out there that it all turns into one big sound and we can put the whole thing into a pickup truck and let it roll off the edge of the Grand Canyon.

The limitations are limitless.

There's some quality you get when you're not totally comfortable.

I grew up I guess you'd say in the cassette era.

If someone is making a judgment when they don't have firsthand experience, it's intolerant. How can you make a judgment on something you don't know about?

Set your guitars and banjos on fire and before you write a song smoke a pack of whiskey and it'll all take care of itself.

Let the desert wind cool your aching head. Let the weight of the world - drift away instead

There's 40 or 50 songs that nobody's heard that I've done in between albums. There's a whole evolution from Midnite Vultures to Sea Change that's never been released.

You can't write if you can't relate.

I'm just taking one step at a time. I could zigzag one way, but it's not usually on purpose.

When my nephew was 3 and 4, he would say the most genius things. He said, You're hammer macho with FBI dogs. I thought it was just one of those great lines.

As music becomes more computer-based, it's lost some emotional impact.

I've done so many albums where I've been in the studio for 14 hours a day for six months just trying to come up with things on my own. It's a nice change helping other people with their music and not being all about what I'm trying to do myself.

With modern recording techniques, and living in the Pro Tools era, the process gets really drawn-out, and it can become painstaking.

As society changes, as politics change, as people change, certain songs still seem to resonate.

There's some quality you get when you're not totally comfortable. When you're not doing what you're used to, you could completely fall on your face. You could completely blow it.

I'm the artist formally known as Beck. I have a genius wig. When I put that wig on, then the true genius emerges. I don't have enough hair to be a genius. I think you have to have hair going everywhere.

I just go in the studio and write on the spot and see what comes out.

You have to shelve a lot of your inspiration. There's only so much you can do with one record.