John Cale Quotations

Time plays a role in almost every decision. And some decisions define your attitude about time.

The only reason we wore sunglasses onstage was because we couldn't stand the sight of the audience.

I never use the word, it's loaded. What love means to me is need.

I like what the future holds. I don't like thinking about the past.

When somebody grabs a movement, you're kind of locked into it. It's all par for the course.

If I'm interested in what I'm doing, other people will be interested in it.

What I enjoy most about being on stage is that the natural instruments give you a greater freedom with texture. When you use natural instruments they have their own resonance.

In cities like New York and Austin, there's much more of a social context for music than in other places.

I want to get lean and mean, keep it minimalist.

The value of having a computer, to me, is that it'll remember everything you do. It's a databank.

Even if you're improvising, the fact that beforehand you know certain things will work helps you make those improvisations successful. It really helps to have a certain amount of knowledge about musical structure.

I learn from thinking about the future, what hasn't been done yet. That's kind of my constant obsession.

I'm content with making records, but I don't want to be doing the same thing all the time.

If you're all loaded up on love, you haven't got anywhere else to go.

Growing up in Wales was a pretty Draconian experience with religion.

I missed out on my teenage years. I led a sheltered life. I was practicing scales instead of playing football.

I'm impatient. I get twitchy. When I get that feeling I just go out and make something happen.

I'm writing a movie about Mozart going to New York in the '60s. I've been reading so many novels.

People sort of know me for that solo piano music I did.

We gave up on the idea of trying to make the record a good representation of the live performance.

We'd hold a chord for three hours if we could.

All of the sudden the audiences started getting younger and the spread of the attendance was really wide. I think it's as a result of the records selling more that they started following our careers.

I'm still looking for something. I'm getting closer, I think, but if someone moves the goalposts before the next album, I may have to follow them!

I started off doing rock 'n' roll, and then I went back, a couple of albums ago, into writing rock 'n' roll songs, and now this is a show with a straight-up rock 'n' roll band.

If you pick the right musicians, you minimize your problems. It's not the first impetus that they get along together, but it certainly helps.

I just get bored with what I'm doing. I like to switch. I did a lot of soundtrack work, and once I got that under my belt, I started writing songs.

It would be a stronger world, a stronger, loving world, to die in.

In the studio you have pretty much carte blanche with whatever you're doing. You can turn natural instruments into electronic instruments.

Everyone should be encouraged...in spiration and artistic freedom is the cornerstone of rock and roll.

I like it here in New York. I like the idea of having to keep eyes in the back of your head all the time.

That's what my life is, writing songs.

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.

The avant-garde makes more sense to me.