Tom Petty quotes:

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  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Most magic is a trick, an illusion. But [when The Beatles played the Ed Sullivan Show], this was real. Man oh man, was it real.

  • 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.

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

  • Excuse me if I have/some place in my mind/where I go time to time.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • We haven't always been boy scouts, but we never lost sight of the music, Let me remind you that this ain't the end.

  • I like a good beer. Of course, I'll drink a bad one too. Let no person thirst for lack of real ale! Thank god for long-necked bottles, the angel's remedy.

  • 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.

  • Yeah and it's over before you know it It all goes by so fast Yeah the bad nights take forever And the good nights don't ever seem to last

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

  • I'm barely prolific and incredibly lazy.

  • 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.

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

  • 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 think for it to be hip to be idealistic is weird, you know? I mean, even all the best rebels to me, had some sense of hope in them.

  • Take back your insurance, baby, nothing is guaranteed. Take back your acid rain, let your TV bleed.

  • You need eagles wings to get over things that make no sense in this world.

  • You were the one who made things different, you were the one who took me in. You were the one thing I could count on, above all, you were my friend.

  • And the days went by like paper in the wind. Everything changed, then changed again. It's hard to find a friend. It's hard to find a friend.

  • If you're not getting older, you're dead.

  • I don't believe in censorship, but I do believe that an artist has to take some moral responsibility for what he or she is putting out there. And I think a lot of these young kids are going to have to learn the hard way before they realize that you can actually do some damage if you're being careless or frivolous in what you're saying.

  • I had to learn a new way of playing. I had to practice a lot, and just find ways around the limitations. So it was a bad idea to break my hand.You said you were doing a lot of cocaine. Did that affect your songwriting?No. I think it affected my breaking my hand."

  • When you kill somebody's little sister with a missile, he's going to hate you forever. And the next generation will hate you even more.

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

  • There was rock and roll across the dial, when I think of her it makes me smile.

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

  • At the end of the day, you're just phonograph records.

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

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

  • At twilight time the smog makes a rainbow.

  • 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.

  • 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.

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

  • If you listen long enough you can hear my skin grow tough love is painful to the touch must be made of stronger stuff.

  • I think watching the TV news is bad for you. It is bad for your physical health and your mental health.

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

  • As we celebrate mediocrity, all the boys upstairs want to see. How much you'll pay for what you used to get for free.

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

  • You belong among the wildflowers You belong in a boat out at sea You belong with your love on your arm You belong somewhere you feel free

  • The waiting is the hardest part, every day you get one more yard. You take it on faith, you take it to the heart, the waiting is hardest part.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

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

  • 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.

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

  • 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.

  • 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.

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

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

  • A rebel without a clue.

  • Any time you're making a living at what you love to do, you're blessed.

  • Artists aren't necessarily business people. And they aren't necessarily aware of all the things that go on in their names. Some just want to make some music, but there is a lot of greed among artists as well. Whether or not we know it, we are all to blame. I think it's time - starting with the artist - to try to be a little more responsible and aware of what goes on in our name.

  • Bring me a girl, they're always the best. You put 'em on stage, and you have 'em undress.

  • But not me, baby, I've got you to save me.

  • Buy me a drink, sing me a song; take me as I come, cause I can't stay long.

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

  • Even the losers get lucky sometimes!

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

  • Every verse a diamond, every chorus gold, the sound was my salvation. It was only everything, before money became king.

  • '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.

  • George Harrison was the kind of guy who wasn't going to leave until he hugged you for five minutes and told you how much he loved you.

  • God, it's so painful when something that's so close is still so far out of reach.

  • Gonna wind it up on my guitar. Gonna make that silver sing.

  • Good loving is hard to find, you got lucky babe, when I found you.

  • Gypsies at home watching Jerry Falwell on TV, might mean something to you, it ain't nothing to me.

  • He [George Harrison] told me he really, really admired John [Lennon]. He probably wanted John's acceptance pretty bad, you know?

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

  • Honey, don't walk out, I'm too drunk to follow.

  • How 'bout a cheer for all those bad girls? And all those boys that play that rock and roll? They love it like you love Jesus, It does the same thing to their souls.

  • I ain't really sure, but it seems I remember the good times

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

  • 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 can't crawl any further. You never crawled for me.

  • 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 don't believe in censorship, but I do believe that an artist has to take some moral responsibility for what he or she is putting out there.

  • 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 don't understand the ones that have no sense of hope and invest in hate. That's not gonna work out, you know? It's a waste of your time!

  • I got my own way of praying.

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

  • I have never been comfortable being the front man.

  • 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.

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

  • I never could have dreamed that her heart was so wicked, but I keep coming back because it's so hard to kick it.

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

  • 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 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 it's important to always offer something new.

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

  • 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 would never put my songs in a commercial.

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

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

  • If you don't run, you rust.

  • 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.

  • If you stretch your imagination, I'll tell you all a tale, about a time when everything wasn't up for sale.

  • I'll stand my ground and I won't back down...

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

  • I'm certainly not a Robin Hood, I'm not that way. I don't want to come through, burn everybody for $200 a ticket and then they can't afford to come see me again. Plus, I just don't think it's right. I don't think we need that much money. I just do what seems like the logical thing to do.

  • I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings. Coming down is the hardest thing.

  • 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'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.

  • 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.

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

  • I'm tired of screwing up. I'm tired of being down. I'm tired of myself. I'm tired of bein' down.

  • In a world that keeps on pushing me around, I'm gonna stand my ground, and I won't back down...

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