Paul Reed Smith quotes:

In the camera business, you won't survive if you don't innovate. In the guitar business you may or may not. The guitars being sold were designed between '48 and '59, Gibson SGs in '61.

I have my own hard earned money and if I buy a fly rod I'm going to give my money to the company that's giving me value. I'm going to the guy who gives me my money's worth.

There are times when product is more important than people and sometimes the people are more important than the product.

I don't see any rock stars playing an electric guitar from some new maker like you see in the acoustic guitar world.

The world is in great need of more music education. When students play music, it allows a part of their artistic mind to express itself, which is very important in helping to balance a child intellectually, spiritually, and emotionally.

I change guitars as they come and go. I have one I played for almost a decade, but I've put it away. It was the first McCarty. Now, I'm playing one I grabbed off the line. I've been playing it ever since.

I see money as a reflection of how much impact you're having on the world. I see money as a metaphor in a way.

I tried to make guitars that were close to what my heroes played. That's the way it's done. My experience is that you have to do it like a musician. You have to learn the language before you can learn to be a novelist.

I'm pretty good at letting people do what they are good at, that's why they're experts.

It used to be that I could talk to someone in Texas and nobody would hear about it. Now, the moment I open my mouth it's all over the world. The second I say something, guys in Germany know about it. It's basically a wonderful thing because more information is spread, but you have to keep your mouth shut.

Nobody gives twenty-five million dollars to anybody if they're not getting twenty-five million worth out of it. Forget it. It just doesn't happen.

People by themselves can be pretty stupid. People working together can be very powerful.

People will pay exactly what things are worth give or take a few bucks. You might pay a few bucks more if you like the dealer and think the dealer will take care of you, but most people are going to the internet and don't care about that. I don't think that hard earned money is given away.

Somebody's going to wake up and their job in life is going to be to make guitars. There are a lot of good, talented people.