Bruce Springsteen Quotes - Page 16

I think that, when you're writing your songs, there's always a debate about whether, is that you in the song? Is it not you in the song?

That's what being a front man is all about - the idea of having something supple underneath you, that machine that roars and can turn on a dime.

I'm not in any rush. I'm not somebody who, if I write a song, I get it out. That's not something I've ever really quite done.

I don't know if I know anyone, with the exception of the early inventors of rock music [who wasn't influenced by something].

I think 1960s small-town America was very Lynchian. Everything was there, but underneath, everything was rumbling.

The audiences are there as a result of my history with the band but also as a result of my being able to reach people with a tune.

I held four clean aces. I had youth, almost a decade of hard-core bar band experience, a good group of homegrown musicians who were attuned to my performance style and a story to tell.

I come from a boardwalk town where almost everything is tinged with a bit of fraud. So am I.

Well everybody's got a secret, son, something that they just can't face. Some folks spend their whole lives trying to keep it, they carry it with them every step that they take Till some day they just cut it loose, cut it loose or let it drag 'em down Where no one asks any questions or looks too long in your face In the darkness on the edge of town.

She went away, she cut me like a knife Hello beautiful thing, maybe you could save my life In just a glance, down here on magic street Loves a fool's dance And I ain't got much sense, but I still got my feet.

We're a long, long way from home, Bobbie; Home's a long, long way from us. I feel a dirty wind blowing; Devils and dust.

Baby, in a world without pity Do you think what I'm askin's too much I just want to feel you in my arms Share a little of that Human Touch.

Well let there be sunlight, let there be rain Let the brokenhearted love again Sherry, we can run with our arms open before the tide.

You know hearts these days are cheap.

And at the time, for one of the few times in my life I didn't have a band, I just had myself and the guitar, so I was going to have to do something with just my voice, just the guitar and just my songs that was going to move someone enough to give me a shot. So I wrote songs that were very lyrically alive and lyrically dense. And they were unique, but it really came out of the motivation to - or I understood it was - I was going to have to make my mark that way.

I walked a thousand miles just to slip this skin.

Steve Van Zandt, the poor guy, doesn't get to play enough as it is with me hogging a lot of the solos. Steve has always been a fabulous guitarist. Back from the day when we were both teenagers together, he led his band and played lead and was always a hot guitar player.

Patti [ Scialfa] was an artist and a musician and she was a songwriter. And she was a lot like me in that she was transient also. She worked busking on the streets in New York. She waitressed. She had - she just lived a life - she lived a musician's life. She lived an artist's life. So we were both people who were very uncomfortable in a domestic setting, getting together and trying to build one and seeing if our particularly strange jigsaw puzzle pieces were going to fit together in a way that was going to create something different for the two of us. And it did.

I'm just tired and bored with myself.

I think initially, our audiences were filled with young men. You know, our initial audience was a lot of young guys who I think were trying to - who you played a bit of a big brother role for and were trying to sort out a lot of the same things right - soon as "Born To Run" hit, you know? So it was something that I worked pretty hard on.

I got Mary pregnant and man that's all she wrote. And for my 19th birthday, I got a union card and a factory coat.

Badlands, you got to live it everyday, let the broken hearts stand as the price you've got to pay.

You use to drive me wild, but lately you get your kicks from just knocking me down, down, down.

Sometimes, at night you could hear the whole damn city crying.

You can beat on your chest, hell, any monkey can.