Richard Thompson quotes:

It's fun to sing sad songs. And it's fun to listen to sad songs. Enjoyable. Satisfying. Something.

To stand up on a stage alone with an acoustic guitar requires bravery bordering on heroism. Bordering on insanity.

Well, first of all it's entertainment. That stops us becoming too pretentious or thinking we're great artists.

Nothing is plainer than that, if the principles of the church of Rome prevail here, our Constitution would fall. The two cannot exist together. They are in open and direct antagonism with the fundamental theory of our government and of all popular government everywhere.

I'm glad there are a lot of guitar players pursuing technique as diligently as they possibly can, because it leaves this whole other area open to people like me.

I like the idea of playing in unison with yourself.

As the writer, you're always a presence in the song. If you get close to what human beings are like, you're writing about common experience. We all do much the same things, so if you nail somebody, then you've also nailed yourself.

There's a part of me that wishes I'd never said one single solitary word on any subject publicly. Then I could have been the tortured poet, and there's so much mileage in that. But it's too late to stop now.

I'm always making a conscious effort to be viable and accessible.

I think it's absolutely possible to write a song and go somewhere where no one's been before, uncharted territory. In terms of content, I see limitations where there should be none. I know there are things I wouldn't write about, but that shouldn't be the case. You should be able to make a song out of anything, out of any situation.

People want to hear about the extremes of human nature. They want things that are larger than their own lives, and more romantic, and not necessarily of their own experiences.

When you stand up acoustic in front of an audience, you really are a man without any clothes on. And that can be fun - it depends how much of an exhibitionist you are, I suppose. I quite enjoy it.

But music can save your life sometimes. It probably saved me from working in a bank or something. That's a kind of salvation right there.

Every day I'll wear your memory like a favorite shirt upon my back

The thing I do, really, is a communication with audiences more than any achievement through records.

I probably wrote three-quarters of the songs without an instrument in my hands.

I try to make songs visual and tactile to kind of put you into the action.

What I wanted to hear didn't exist, so it was necessary for me to go out and create it.

All audiences should be slightly off balance.

Amplifying acoustic instruments more than a little is really cheating, and everything becomes a compromise.

I have to remind myself not to set boundaries.

I just like to entertain myself by sitting down and writing songs.

I think the reason kids get into drugs and smoking is they don't have anything to do.

I think you can refine what you do, and become more consistent. And you write better songs that have a better shape and a better feeling. You evolve into and out of things, and go through stages, but, ultimately, you do improve.

I try to look for the good in everybody, regardless of the way they're labeled.

I want people to come to my music without prejudice. I want them to get the music first. And who I am isn't that important. If they like the songs to me that's a good thing.

I'm sure every pattern has been covered, but it's nice to think you might dwell on some that other people don't.

It's amazing what some people read into songs.

Sitting around home I mostly play acoustic. I've got seven or eight guitars of various sorts, including a baritone. Sometimes at home, because a guitar is just lying around, that's the guitar I pick up rather than actually choosing something. I try to plan ahead for my laziness by leaving interesting things scattered about. If I leave a baritone guitar lying around, that's the one I'll pick up, and I'll start writing baritoney things.

The best thing you've got going for you is individuality.

There are only three white blues singers -- Geoff Muldaur is at least two of them.

There is in fact a controversy over Darwin's theory. Clearly both theories have religious implications. But this is not about God.

They came in the thousands from the whole human race to pay their respects at his last resting place.

To see both sides of a quarrel, is to judge without hate or alarm

Will there be any bartenders up there in Heaven, will the pubs never close?

You want the audience to be uncomfortable.