Paul Simon Quotations

Music is forever; music should grow and mature with you, following you right on up until you die.

I would be willing to do almost anything to make Art happy. I care about our friendship. The only thing I won't do is change the essence of my work.

My whole artistic life has always been about change, change, change, move on, move on. It's the only thing I find interesting.

My voice is my improvisational instrument, the melody instrument. The guitar is harmonic structure. I'm not a good enough guitarist to improvise on it.

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.

I try to open up my heart as much as I can and keep a real keen eye out that I don't get sentimental. I think we're all afraid to reveal our hearts. It's not at all in fashion.

The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenements halls and whispered in the sounds of silence.

As long as you have capital punishment there is no guarantee that innocent people won't be put to death.

Who am I to blow against the wind?

There's something about the sound of a train that's very romantic and nostalgic and hopeful.

Anybody can do bad work, but not everybody does good work.

If you can get humor and seriousness at the same time, you've created a special little thing, and that's what I'm looking for, because if you get pompous, you lose everything.

We've survived by believing our life is going to get better.

I don't believe what the papers are saying They're just out to capture my dime, Exaggerating this, exaggerating that.

Faith is an island in the setting sun, But proof is the bottom line for everyone.

I think I have a superior brain and an inferior stature, if you really want to get brutal about it.

Why am I so soft in the middle when the rest of my life is so hard?

Without Arthur's voice, I never would have enjoyed that success.

Someone told me it's all happening at the zoo.

You want to be a writer, don't know how or when? Find a quiet place, use a humble pen.

I'm not in it for the money. I like music. I love to write music. I can't imagine myself not playing or singing or writing. It would just drive me crazy if I didn't.

All lies and jests, still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.

I don't consider myself to be a major talent, so the only solace I can take is to hope I'm growing.

It's pointless to be critical of your stuff once it's done. I don't spend a lot of time agonising over it. It's of no importance once it's finished.

My life so common it disappears and sometimes even music cannot substitute for tears.

I'm more interested in what I discover than what I invent.

Facts can be turned into art if one is artful enough.

I don't think that Simon and Garfunkel as a live act compares to Simon and Garfunkel as a studio act.

People often called us perfectionists, but we were not looking for perfection. We were looking for some kind of magic in the music.

I rate each album as better than the last one. That's how I see it.

The thought that life could be better is woven indelibly into our hearts and our brains.

We were always able to sing and blend well together; that's our gift. But aside from that, we're really two different guys.

I don't very often think I've done a good job. I don't like the majority of what I do. I shouldn't say I don't like it, but I'm not satisfied with almost everything that I do.

Having a track record to live up to and the history of successes had become a hindrance. It becomes harder to break out of what people expect you to do.

Artie travels all the time. The rehearsals were just miserable. Artie and I fought all the time. He didn't want to do the show with my band; he just wanted me on acoustic guitar.

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.

When we came into the studio I became more and more me, making the tracks and choosing the musicians, partly because a great deal of the time during Bridge, Artie wasn't there.

Improvisation is too good to leave to chance.

I question what emotion Manilow touches. People are entertained by him. But are they emotionally moved? I don't believe anything that Barry Manilow sings.

Artie is a singer, and I'm a writer and player and a singer. We didn't work together on a creative level and prepare the songs. I did that.

It's a big error to think that because you like somebody's work, you're going to like him.

The record company stay out of my way. Whenever the record is finished, they take it.

There must be 50 ways to leave your lover.

We got on American Bandstand, where kids would dance to a record and then rate it. We called ourselves Tom and Jerry. I was Jerry.

When I was 15, I made a solo record. It made Artie very unhappy. He looked upon it as something of a betrayal.

Being an artist doesn't mean that you're a good artist. That was the bargain I first made with myself: I'd say, I'm an artist, but I'm not really very good.

I lived in an attached house. My father used to drive into the wrong driveway all the time. He'd say, Damn it, how do you tell one of these houses from another?

I suppose an artist takes the elements of his life and rearranges them and then has them perceived by others as though they were the elements of their lives.

I think Bridge Over Troubled Water was a very good song. Artie sang it beautifully. The Boxer was a really nice record. But I don't think I've written any great songs.

We had many more points of agreement than we had points of difference, but we did differ, and the bigger we got, the more insistent we got that each one of us should have his way.

We just did what we'd done when we were an act in the '60s. But I found it impossible to hold a dialogue with 500,000 people. In a certain sense, it was numbing.

A man sees what he wants to see, And disregards the rest.

How much can you do with two voices? You can sing thirds or you can sing fifths or you can do a background harmony.

Mrs. Robinson is a little dated now, but it has nothing to do with Joe DiMaggio.

When I began making my own albums, the songs became funkier. They were more about the streets.

One of the things that upset me was some of the criticism leveled at Simon and Garfunkel. I always took exception to it, but actually I agree with a lot of it.

Not every song I write is ecstasy. And it can happen only one time. After that, when you sing the same melody and words, it's pleasure, but you don't get wiped out.

Yesterday, it was my birthday I hung one more year on the line I should be depressed My life's a mess But I'm Having A Good Time...

Yesterday, it was my birthday I hung one more year on the line I should be depressed My life's a mess But I'm Having A Good Time...

She was physically forgottenThen she slipped into my pocketWith my car keysShe said you've taken me for grantedBecause I please you

She says, maybe these emotions are as near to love as love will ever be.

She comes back to tell me she's gone. As if I didn't know that, as if I didn't know my own bed. As if I'd never noticed the way she brushed her hair from her forehead.

She looked me over and I guess she thought I was alright. Alright in a sort of limited way for an off-night.

I was greatly reassured that she was acting in the best interest of journalists and the public.

I fall to my knees, shake a rattle at the sky, I'm afraid that I'll be taken, abandoned, and forsaken in her cold coffee eyes.

For those who thought it was going to be some kind of a snow job because it was paid for by the cable industry, it says very clearly we have to do a better job,

Hello lamp post, what ya knowin'? I come to watch your flowers growin'. Ain't you got no rhymes for me? do do do do... feelin' groovy.

It is not a deterrent. It is in a very real sense a revenge by society. ... Revenge is not a proper motivation by the government. Justice should be our aim. I think these recommendations ... will improve our system of justice,

Time, time, time, See what's become of me, While I look around all my possibilities

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

Somewhere in a burst of glory / Sound becomes a song.

Losing love is like a window in your heart...

How can you live in the Northeast?

Every generation throws a hero up the pop charts.

The Wisdom is old, the Koran is old, the Bible is old. Disagreements? Work 'em out.

It's outrageous to line your pockets off the misery of the poor; It's outrageous, the crimes some human beings must endure...

...what threatens us today in the world of computers and other invasions of privacy is not a national ID card but a number of other things.

Take me. I'm an ordinary player in the key of C. And my will was broken by my pride and my vanity. Who's gonna love you when you're looks are gone? God will. Like he waters the flowers on your window sill.

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.

Far above the golden clouds, the darkness vibrates. The earth is blue. And everything about it is a love song. Everything about it.

The course of a lifetime runs/over and over again

Blessed are the sat upon, spat upon, ratted on.

You know, life is what you make of it- so beautiful or so what.

I'm going to Graceland, for reasons I cannot explain. There's some part of me wants to see Graceland. And I may be advised to defend every love, every ending, or maybe there's no obligations now. Maybe I've a reason to believe we all will be received in Graceland.

So I'll continue to continue to pretend my life will never end, and flowers never bend with the rainfall.

All God requires from us is to enjoy life and love. That's the whole point.

The trick is, as I know it, is to care like hell and not give a damn at the same time.

One man's ceiling is another man's floor.

The death penalty is reserved for people who do not

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.

I won't disturb the slumber of feelings that have died. If I never loved I never would have cried...I am a rock.

There is a moment, a chip in time, when leaving home is the lesser crime.

Serious numbers will speak to us always.

* She said, why don't we both just sleep on it tonight And I believe, in the morning you'll begin to see the light And then she kissed me and I realized she probably was right There must be fifty ways to leave your lover, fifty ways to leave your lover Paul Simon, Still Crazy After All These Years (1975), 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover First thing I remember when you came into my life I said I wanna get that girl, no matter what I do Well I guess I've been in love before and once or twice have been on the floor But I've never loved no-one the way that I love you.

The problem is all inside your head, she said to me The answer is easy if you take it logically I'd like to help you in your struggle to be free There must be fifty ways to leave your lover.

A man walks down the street. It's a street in a strange world. Maybe it's the third world. Maybe it's his first time around. He doesn't speak the language. He holds no currency. He is a foreign man. He is surrounded by the sound, sound of cattle in the marketplace, scatterlings and orphanages. He looks around, around he sees angels in the architecture spinning in infinity and he says, "Amen" and "Hallelujah!

I don't like fashion. It's very heartless.

Listen to the sound of silence.

I have my books and my poetry to protect me

Hide it in a hiding place where no one ever goes Put it in your pantry with your cupcakes