Robbie Robertson quotes:

The road has taken a lot of the great ones: Hank Williams, Buddy Holly, Otis Redding, Janis, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis.

I've always been in love with that Delta-flavored music... the music that came from Mississippi and Memphis and, especially, New Orleans. When I was 14, I was in a wanna-be New Orleans band in Toronto.

When I was 14 years old, I had the opportunity to meet Buddy Holly. I asked him how he got that big, powerful sound out of his guitar amp. He said, 'I blew a speaker and decided not to get it fixed.'

The native music of North America, the original-roots music of this country, is also the underworld music of this country.

Most of my younger Native American friends are not in any way looking for sympathy, and they're not looking to lay guilt on anybody. They have their dignity, and they do what they do.

For years after 'The Last Waltz,' I got all kinds of silly movie offers - or, maybe, not silly, but parts that are not my calling... lots of offers to play some wonderful boyfriend.

I saw Ray Charles at Massey Hall.

After the 'Last Waltz' concert, it just seemed very healthy to me to put making a record as far out of my mind as I possibly could.

I never really had a teenage experience. I went from childhood to maturity, and in some ways, it short-circuited me emotionally.

The Band was rebelling against the rebellion. The rebellion went to a place where it became too obvious, too trendy, like you were just following the pack. So it was our choice to get off the bandwagon - no pun intended - and do things that were in our background and what was the most honest thing to do.

It's extraordinary that revolutions taking place around the world were sparked by communication on the Internet.

The direction is going the right way for respect for aboriginal people in North America, and all we can do is stand up and say, 'Please do it faster.'

My thirst for knowledge and experience comes from the idea that once you learned something, it was time to learn something else. I missed out on a formal educational process, so I'm making up for that.

One of the greatest live recordings, I think, in the history of the world is Ray Charles in Atlanta... And they didn't even have a big mobile recording thing set up. The word on the street was they only had like two microphones, one for the band and one for him. Perfect recordings. I think it's mono.

I'd always thought Cage's 'Root of an Unfocus' would be great in a movie.

Music should never be harmless.

I love traditional music. But in any culture around the world, there is the historic and cultural music and everything that's been passed down and passed down, and hopefully you take that, and then you take it, you know, the next distance, and then somebody else takes it the next distance.

It's a bit of a sore spot, the Thanksgiving in Indian country.

Some people love some music, and they hear it a year later and they think, 'What was I thinking?'

I think, some countries, you have to be dead to have your picture on a stamp.

I come from a family who prided themselves, both sides, on memory. And I was told growing up, constantly, that I was born with a really good memory.

When I was younger, I thought I was too young to really be personal. I thought that what I was feeling and thinking might be half-baked.

Some bands today have the experience of really working together and honing their craft. And other bands are very much like, 'I just got a guitar for Christmas, let's start a band.' And you can hear the difference.

One of the things I feel very strong about is the achievement of the Band really being a complete band.

I play guitar quite a bit, because I'm always in search of something. I don't play to jam, but because I'm fishing. I'm looking for something, that I hope you can never find. If I do find it, I'm afraid I won't have a need to do this any more.

Once you establish a foundation of knowing what the greatest recording artists of all time were... Wouldn't you want your kids to know this stuff?

People go through periods when things are dark and cloudy, and they talk dark and cloudy.

There's something so healthy about young people speaking up in unity.

The Band is probably the ultimate example of people taking all kinds of music, from gospel to blues to mountain music to folk music to on and on and on and on and putting them all in this big pot and mixing up a new gumbo.

In a lot of groups, you can change a musician, and it doesn't mean anything.

I thought of a lot of people from the same era when I was making a lot of records that had continued making a lot of records. A lot of it didn't seem terribly inspired.

You don't stumble upon your heritage. It's there, just waiting to be explored and shared.

There is an extraordinary collaborative spirit when you are learning and growing.

Say a prayer for the lost generation, who spin the wheel out of desperation.

I haven't been to many music events where somebody was performing and it actually made me cry.

If I can play one note and make you cry, then that's better than those fancy dancers playing twenty notes.

I've always been in love with that Delta-flavored music the music that came from Mississippi and Memphis and, especially, New Orleans. When I was 14, I was in a wanna-be New Orleans band in Toronto.

For years after 'The Last Waltz,' I got all kinds of silly movie offers - or, maybe, not silly, but parts that are not my calling lots of offers to play some wonderful boyfriend.

Working on 'The Last Waltz' introduced me to Martin Scorsese, and I had been a movie bug since I was a young kid.

By the time I was 13, I was the only one in London, Ontario, who knew how to play rock n' roll.

I asked Bob Dylan to paint the album cover for 'Music from Big Pink.' He said, 'Yeah, let me see what I can come up with.'

In Americana, the facts and the dreams seem to be all the same to me.

The kid at 9 or 10 who knows who Billie Holiday is... that's the coolest thing ever.

I love the idea of having a kid who says, 'Yeah, of course I knew about Billie Holiday and Johnny Cash when I was nine years old.'

I think the world of Chuck Berry.

Chuck Berry told me if it wasn't for Louis Jordan, he wouldn't have probably ever even got into music. That Louis Jordan changed everything and made him want to become a musician.

I am fascinated by the places that music comes from, like fife-and-drum blues from southern Mississippi or Cajun music out of Lafayette, Louisiana, shape-note singing, old harp singing from the mountains - I love that stuff. It's like the beginning of rock and roll: something comes down from the hills, and something comes up from the delta.

At a young age I thought, 'Wow, that fiddle thing, that's pretty cool. That mandolin is great. These drums, I like these drums... ' They were Indian drums. And I was saying, 'But that guitar. That guitar. Girls are going to like that guitar.'

I wanted to develop a guitar style where phrases and lines get there just in the nick of time, like with Curtis Mayfield and Steve Cropper. Subtleties mean so much, and there is a stunning beauty in them.

My mother told me when I was a toddler and in the crib that they would have music playing, and the thing when I lit up was boogie-woogie or something out of the Louie Jordan period of sometimes big bands, and then all kinds of things.

Think about the number of people who do film music, make records and have a Native American heritage - and I may be the only one on the list.

I feel so lucky to have been in a group where it was a real band. This wasn't a singer and guitar player and some other guys.

I don't know - it's a bit of a mystery of how things come about when they do. I don't have a scientific explanation for it. Sometimes when you're writing a song, you don't know where you're going.

To find a new star in the sky is pretty hard.

A lot of times when you're making a record, you put your head down and charge forward until you're done. You just hope that the ideas hold up, because you're kind of lost in your own storm.

Some music is supposed to be disposable; that's OK. A lot of music is fun for today, but it isn't supposed to be timeless; it's supposed to be trendy.

We need to have a taste factor in our life. It isn't about what's popular; it's about what's really good.

It's easy to be a genius in your twenties. In your forties, it's difficult.

There's a bookstore in New York where you could buy scripts, and I got addicted to them because they were easy, quick reads... and the pictures were so vivid.

At a young age I thought, 'Wow, that fiddle thing, that's pretty cool. That mandolin is great. These drums, I like these drums ' They were Indian drums. And I was saying, 'But that guitar. That guitar. Girls are going to like that guitar.'

Bob Dylan is as influential as any artist that there has been.

Boy, do I got some stories to tell.

Confused by the big city blues, he didn't know who's life he's leading. Put yourself behind the wheel, see if you can get that feel.

Everybody grows in their own way.

Give us the strength, give us the wisdom, and give us tomorrow.

I admire those old road dogs, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan. That's their life.

I don't believe it's all for nothing. It's not just written in the sand.

I don't like overt traditionalism.

I don't want to be one of those people saying, 'Remember when things were better?'

I like to work on records when I feel inspired, not because it's expected of me.

I really have to feel a sense of freedom in my storytelling.

I think that there's always great music being made. Always has been, always will be.

I try not to think the song to death. The main criteria is if it's working on an emotional level.

I'm really lucky because I found myself in a position where I can do whatever I want to do. I can make records, produce records, make movies, or I can do nothing. I'm not a slave to the dollar.

It would be nice to abandon the verse-chorus-bridge structure completely, and make it so none of these things are definable. ... Make up new names for them. Instead of a bridge, you can call it a highway, or an overpass. ... Music should never be harmless. ... I remember from my earliest years, people speaking, you know, in a certain kind of rhythm and telling stories and sharing experiences in a way that was different in Indian country than it was other places. And I was really struck by this and obviously very affected by it, because it's always come out in my songs.

It would be nice to abandon the verse-chorus-bridge structure completely, and make it so none of these things are definable...Make up new names for them. Instead of a bridge, you can call it a highway, or an overpass...Music should never be harmless.

Lord please save his soul, he was the king of rock and roll.

making a noise in this world making a noise in this world you can bet your ass, I won't go quietly making a noise in this world.

Musical revolutions, I don't know how many I've been through.

Once you establish a foundation of knowing what the greatest recording artists of all time were Wouldn't you want your kids to know this stuff?

Record making is an extraordinary experience.

That whole lifestyle - make a record, do a tour: I know how to do that. It doesn't interest me.

The Beatles tried to do some tours and found it to be completely pointless and became a non-touring band after that, and with very good reason.

The rock concert experience for people was really pretty stupid, you know, at the time. People would go to concerts not with the idea of listening at all.

There's a bookstore in New York where you could buy scripts, and I got addicted to them because they were easy, quick reads and the pictures were so vivid.

There's a thing that has happened in the U.S. where the spirit has been beaten so badly and so you feel no unity in the voice of the country.

Time is not kind to everything.

When I was playing with Bob Dylan in, like, 1966, I was, like, 20 years old.

When people get together that come from different musical backgrounds, a lot of times there's is a good ... it's very enjoyable to say somebody, let me turn you on to some things, and the other person does the same thing. And they play you stuff that maybe you weren't that familiar with and likewise.

When you make a record, your own record, and you don't even recognize it yourself, it's hard to think if anybody else is going to recognize.

While I was there, I was just gathering images and names, and ideas and rhythms, and I was storing all of these things - which I didn't realize I was doing - but I was storing them all in an attic in my mind somewhere. And when it was time to sit down and write songs, when I reached into the attic to see what I was gonna write about, that's what was there.

You fog the mind, you stir the soul.

You never know what could be interesting tomorrow.