Tom Petty Quotations

You and I will meet again, When we're least expecting it, One day in some far off place, I will recognize your face, I won't say goodbye my friend, For you and I will meet again.

Go after what you really love and find a way to make that work for you, and then you'll be a happy person.

I'm not exactly a guy who makes new friends easily.

What I've learned about marriage: You need to have each other's back; you have to be a kind of team going through life.

The energy of the crowd is insane. Twenty thousand people. It's the biggest jolt of adrenaline. It's very hard to explain. You know the old story about the woman lifting the car off her kid? It's in that realm. You can actually hurt yourself and not know it.

When I decided to be a musician I reckoned that that was going to be the way of less profit, less money. I was sort of giving up the idea of making a lot of money. It was what I loved to do. I would have done it anyway. If I'd had to work at Taco Bell I'd have still been out at night trying to play music.

Music is probably the only real magic I have encountered in my life. There's not some trick involved with it. It's pure and it's real. It moves, it heals, it communicates and does all these incredible things.

Do something you really like, and hopefully it pays the rent. As far as I'm concerned, that's success.

You get into your late fifties, people start falling like flies all around you. I don't take life for granted any more. I'm really glad to be here.

We don't really make bad records, though some people might like some more than others. And we have never really done a bad show. So I think in a way maybe we've been taken for granted.

'Free Fallin' is a very good song. Maybe it would be one of my favorites if it hadn't become this huge anthem. But I'm grateful that people like it.

I don't think it's a good attitude in your life to feel that you have to be rich to have self-esteem.

When I met Elvis, we didn't really have a conversation. I was introduced by my uncle, and he sort of grunted my way. What stays with me is the whole scene. I had never seen a real mob scene before. I was really young and impressionable. Elvis really did look - he looked sort of not real, as if he were glowing.

I have turned down a lot of money for things that would have made me feel cheesy.

When I was a kid, we didn't have any blues stations. I never heard Howlin' Wolf or Muddy Waters or any of those people until the Stones had come along, and I took it upon myself to find out who these people were that they were covering.

Sometimes, giving up your privacy is a little like going to the dentist and we have let him have access that no one's ever had.

Most things I worry about never happen anyway.

TV does not care about you or what happens to you. It's downright bad for your health now, and that's not a far-out concept. I think watching the TV news is bad for you. It is bad for your physical health and your mental health.

It's funny how the music industry is enraged about the Internet and the way things are copied without being paid for. But you know why people steal the music? Because they can't afford the music.

The great thing about the Wilburys was that none of us had to take the heat by ourselves. I was just a member of the band. Nobody felt like he was above anybody else. We had such a good time.

I developed a problem with authority. Any time that authority was what I interpreted as being unjust, I stood up to it, and that became my personality.

There used to be this real sense of community integrity in rock. It has really eroded. Everyone seems to be on their own now.

I think television's become a downright dangerous thing. It has no moral barometer whatsoever. If you want to talk about something that is all about money, just watch the television.

I've never had any idea that what I like would resonate with the audience, and I'm pleasantly surprised when it does.

I don't know, my music has always just come from where the wind blew me. Like where I'm at during a particular moment in time.

I tend to write on an acoustic guitar or the piano. I have kind of a rule: if I can't sit down and play this and get the song over, I don't take it to the band, because most any good song, you can sit down and deliver it with a piano or a guitar.

I think that if people realize that with an mp3, you're only getting five percent of the sound that's there. But when you hear the entire thing... I think it would save the music business. It's such a drastic change.

It's very easy to be cynical about the hall of fame. But on the other hand, it's really a beautiful thing for someone like me. I dedicated my entire life to this music.

I would never put my songs in a commercial.

The music business looks like, you know, innocent schoolboys compared to the TV business. They care about nothing but profit.

When you get older, your health becomes important to you, things start breaking down, you've always got a different ache or pain.

Rock n' roll was one thing, and then they chopped off the 'roll' and called it 'rock,' which became a sort of umbrella term for anything with a guitar in it. Like hair bands. How could we possibly believe that? It's just gotten downright silly, to the point where now it's sort of become like professional wrestling.

I don't treat the band like I'm above them or that they're a hired hand for me. We've never worked that way. So I'm a team player. I would be very uncomfortable having to do this alone.

Making a record? You've got to have the song, then you create a record. I think it's the same with a live performance. If the material is strong, you're already 90% there. I always tell young people it's all about the music, the songs. Work on the songs, work on the songs, work on the songs.

When I go to see people, I always kind of hope they are going to play some kind of songs I know. So you've got to know your audience. It's kind of something that is a blessing and a curse in a way. You're obligated to play some of that stuff that people know, but I don't think that's all you have to do.

I love history, doesn't matter what era, I'm fascinated.

The first time I tried to write was when I was 14, after I got an electric guitar. I put a song together, and it wasn't that bad! The writing came natural to me.

We're rather fond of it and we think you'll like it, too.

We have a set list, but we work up a lot more (songs) than we're gonna do. That way we can throw things in and change it around, especially if we're in a place for two days. It's good to keep yourself interested. The last show we did five songs we never rehearsed and that certainly sparked us up.

like a deer in the headlights, frozen in real time and I'm losing my mind, it's time to move on

We've given him access we've never given anybody.

Let me run with you tonight, I'll take you on a moonlit ride....

It didn't affect his ability for a long time. Heroin can be like that with musicians; I think that's why you see so many musicians drift that way, because you can remain musical for a long time. But I think, without exception, they all hit the wall eventually and the creativity goes.

We enjoy playing with each other, which I think is a pretty important part of this. If we didn't, we'd have given it up a long time ago. The idea when we started was to take five people and keep 'em together no matter what and see what we could get out of it, and we've pretty much stuck to that plan.

When you shoot well, you can hide a lot of deficiencies. I like the (3-pointer) as well as anyone, but we wanted to be a little more patient on offense in the second half.

We said 'You're going to have to quit this. It's gonna get you. You just don't win with heroin. You die or you go to jail. There's no middle ground. There's no other options,'

You have four years to be irresponsible here. Relax. Work is for people with jobs. You'll never remember class time, but you'll remember time you wasted hanging out with your friends. So, stay out late. Go out on a Tuesday with your friends when you have a paper due Wednesday. Spend money you don't have. Drink 'til sunrise. The work never ends, but college does.

We were pretty efficient in the first half. Our passing was pretty good against their zone.

This award comes at a particularly nice time as the Heartbreakers and I go into the thirtieth year of our career. I'm very honored that Billboard has acknowledged me with this award.

This award comes at a particularly nice time, as the Heartbreakers and I go into the 30th year of our career, ... I'm very honored that Billboard has acknowledged me with this award.

They are a scrappy team and they didn't quit. They battled the whole way.

A person could visualize him putting on 20 pounds and being the kind of tight end you watch on Saturdays. By the same token, he?s got the kind of jump shot, agility and ball skills to make somebody a real nice forward.

I'm reaching there to try and find a theme. It's just a really nice collection of songs. I think it does have an underlying theme of time and what it does to you.

I'm frustrated by what I hear. Maybe it's not meant for me. Personally, I'm way too bright for a lot of the hip-hop lyrics to affect. I'm much too smart to think that jewelry or how cool I am is really going to change much about my personality. If you're dumb enough that it entertains you, have a great time. But I am seeking more than that.

I really do love coming to this particular place.

You've also got to rebound the basketball, and I think Hartley will be the biggest challenge we've faced this year.

I want to be successful. Not just money. Just making a successful record and a successful show. I could feel successful without selling a million records.

I'm not any happier anywhere than when I'm in the studio. I'm over the moon about it. It keeps me young, it keeps me feeling like I have some purpose.

The truth is that if you play on TV there is always a sponsor. There is no way around it. I've already passed on so much money I don't worry about it anymore.

I'm more interested in what I'm going to leave behind me than in making a big hit record. I've refined what I do for a long time. If getting better at it means it goes over the heads of those who only wanted to party, then so be it.

I didn't worry about my career ending, but there were days where I felt pretty beat up by it all and just pretty tired, because they didn't make it easy for me. And coming right off the last lawsuit, it was the last thing I wanted to get involved in. When it was over, we didn't really celebrate, we were just exhausted. I lost all interest in the record business and never wanted to do anything except hand in a record again.

I love the music. I'm never, ever tired of playing it.

If 20,000 people start to sing, you tend to go along with it.

I think it's important to always offer something new.

I always tell my kids, "Find something that you love and within that you'll find some job that you can do and you'll always be happy. You'll go to a job that you want to go to."

I've always had a great love for the blues.

If I'd had to work at Taco Bell I'd have still been out at night trying to play music.

I'm actually better on the guitar than when I started, I think, because I've had so much time with it and I still practice and I love to do it and I love to sing.

I think to be successful you have to work really hard but you also have to have a little bit of luck.

I have never been comfortable being the front man.

I started playing the bass because nobody else would play the bass, and then I got bumped up into singing because no one else really wanted to sing. So I learned how to sing and I wrote the songs, so I tended to get the most attention.

I think sometimes maybe you're going to connect with the audience more than others, but the journey is about getting all there is to get out of this group of people.

I'm always having fun. Playing is fun. Music is fun.

I'm not trying to be cool. I have a problem with lights. I have one eye that's become super-sensitive to lighting, so I do wear sunglasses quite a bit.

I wouldn't want to get stuck being an oldie-goldie group, but I don't mind. I think all the trouble you go through these days to go to one of these concerts, I think I owe them a bit of what they came to hear.

If you look around at America, that's one of its biggest problems is you have corporations that can never be pleased at a profit.

I like making money like anybody else, and I'm paid well, but I think there is a point at which you can out-price your audience or your base.

Way up in the nosebleeds we watched him on the screen, they'd hung between the billboards so cheaper seats could see.

The waiting is the hardest part.

Just wonderin', waitin', worryin' about some silly little things, that just don't add up to nothin'.

I've got a room at the top of the world tonight. I can see everything tonight.

It just seems to useless to have to work so hard, and nothing ever really seem to come from it.

Eddie waited 'til he finished high school, he went to Hollywood, got a tattoo.

I had the radio on, I was driving. Trees flew by, me and Del were singing, Little Runaway, I was flying.

There was no use pretending, no magic left to hear, all the music gave me was a craving for lite beer.

My sister got lucky, married a yuppie, and took him for all he was worth. Now she's a swinger dating a singer, I can't decide which is worse.

He don't wanna change, what don't need to change.

Lord, please watch over all these lost children born to chase the hurricane.

There goes your freedom of choice, there goes the last human voice.

I always liked the idea of the guitar - because cowboys played the guitar.

I should have known right then it was too good to last, God, it's such a drag when you're livin' in the past

I'm not interested in the TV much. I quit watching the news a couple years ago and my outlook on life has gotten a whole lot better.

You spend your life dreaming, running 'round in a trance, You hang out forever and still miss the dance, And if you get lucky, you might find someone, To help you get over the pain that will come.

I remember things being more clearer, at one time things were more real.

Last dance with Mary Jane One more time to kill the pain I feel summer creepin' in and I'm Tired of this town again

Redemption comes to those who wait, forgiveness is the key.

Even the losers get lucky sometimes. Even the losers keep a little bit of pride. They get lucky sometimes.

I'm so tired of being tired. Sure as night will follow day most things I worry about will never happen anyway.

Where the sky begins, the horizon ends, despite the best intentions.

Let's get to the point Let's roll another joint