Quotes

[addressing young people who may romanticize the 1960s] Don't just ape our movement. Don't do hippie poses. Look at us. Admit to yourself that we only took it so far. Build from where we left off.

I know my generation - a lot of them, they're getting old now, and they want to think back fondly, they want to kid themselves. A lot of them think, "Yeah, we were the best". That's the kiss of death. That's non-growth. And also that's very bad for the world.

My favorite line in all of literature is Rudyard Kipling's monkey: "My people are the wisest people in the jungle, my people have always said so."

When the world becomes a massive mess with nobody at the helm, it's time for artists to make their mark.

I thrive on change. That's probably why my chord changes are weird, because chords depict emotions. They'll be going along on one key and I'll drop off a cliff, and suddenly they will go into a whole other key signature. That will drive some people crazy, but that's how my life is.

We all suffer from our loneliness, but at the time of Blue our pop stars never admitted these things. Now, I'm a public person, and my life's an open book.

I'm only a groupie for Picasso and Leonard (Cohen).

[on the possibility that Taylor Swift might be portraying her on screen] All you've got is a girl with high cheekbones.

[on Bob Dylan] Bob is not authentic at all. He's a plagiarist, and his name and voice are fake. Everything about Bob is a deception.

[on Madonna] Americans have decided to be stupid and shallow since 1980. Madonna is like Nero; she marks the turning point.