Inspirational Quotes
Words to motivate, inspire, and guide you.
David Bowie Quotes
Self-BeliefInfluenceExcellence To not be modest about it, you'll find that with only a couple of exceptions, most of the musicians that I've worked with have done their best work by far with me.
PropagandaCharismaLeadershipInfluenceFascism When you think about it, Adolf Hitler was the first pop star.
UniquenessPerspectivePerseveranceWriting If I had a talent, it was for looking askew at everything, possibly more than my contemporaries. But I had to really push myself to be a writer.
CreativityInnovationAdaptability Being a hybrid maker off and on over the years, I'm very comfortable with the idea and have been the subject of quite a few pretty good mash-ups myself.
IdentityEmbodimentTransformation I wanted to imbue Ziggy with real flesh and blood and muscle, and it was imperative that I find Ziggy and be him.
UniverseBeliefRitualsAesthetics I'm in awe of the universe, but I don't necessarily believe there's an intelligence or agent behind it. I do have a passion for the visual in religious rituals, though, even though they may be completely empty and bereft of substance. The incense is powerful and provocative, whether Buddhist or Catholic.
National CharacterPerspectiveCultural Differences The Americans at heart are a pure and noble people; things to them are in black and white. It's either 'rawk' or it's not. We Brits putter around in the grey area.
ArtPassionChangeCreativity I felt I really wanted to back off from music completely and just work within the visual arts in some way. I started painting quite passionately at that time.
Music IndustryFutureTouringChangeAdaptation Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity. So it's like, just take advantage of these last few years because none of this is ever going to happen again. You'd better be prepared for doing a lot of touring because that's really the only unique situation that's going to be left.
FashionStyleSuit With a suit, always wear big British shoes, the ones with large welts. There's nothing worse than dainty little Italian jobs at the end of the leg line.
ConceptualizationRealizationCreationWork I'm not actually a very keen performer. I like putting shows together. I like putting events together. In fact, everything I do is about the conceptualizing and realization of a piece of work, whether it's the recording or the performance side.
Ideal LifeFulfillmentHappiness You would think that a rock star being married to a supermodel would be one of the greatest things in the world. It is.
ArtWitIntellectAmusement There are times when I prefer a cerebral moment with an artist, and I'll just enjoy the wit of a Picabia or a Duchamp. It amuses me that they thought that what they did would be a good way of making art.
RecognitionMusicFame I never could get over the fact that The Pixies formed, worked and separated without America taking them to its heart or even recognizing their existence for the most part.
MusicCreativityPassionLife's Purpose I think, generally, I just cannot really envision life without writing and producing records and singing.
FamilySelf-DiscoveryPersonal GrowthContentment I'm very at ease, and I like it. I never thought I would be such a family-oriented guy; I didn't think that was part of my makeup. But somebody said that as you get older you become the person you always should have been, and I feel that's happening to me. I'm rather surprised at who I am, because I'm actually like my dad!
AlienationSocietyBelonging Songs don't have to be about going out on Saturday night and having a good rink-up and driving home and crashing cars. A lot of what I've done is about alienation... about where you fit in society.
CollaborationTeamwork But I'm pretty good with collaborative thinking. I work well with other people.
OwnershipInterpretationArt I'm rather kind of old school, thinking that when an artist does his work, it's no longer his... I just see what people make of it.
IdentityBelongingSelf-DiscoveryTransformation It's amazing: I am a New Yorker. It's strange; I never thought I would be.
InterpretationPerspectiveCreativityUnderstandingValue Frankly, I mean, sometimes the interpretations I've seen on some of the songs that I've written are a lot more interesting than the input that I put in.
Revolutionary LeftLiterary FiguresE.E. Cummings The truest form of any form of revolutionary Left, whatever you want to call it, was Jack Kerouac, E.E. Cummings, & Ginsberg's period. Excuse me, but that's where it was at.
ExclusionSelf-ReliancePerseveranceAgeism You get to a certain age, and you are forbidden access. You're not going to get the kind of coverage that you would like in music magazines; you're not going to get played on radio, and you're not going to get played on television. I have to survive on word of mouth.
UnityConnectionStrength However, there's no theme or concept behind Heathen, just a number of songs but somehow there is a thread that runs through it that is quite as strong as any of my thematic type albums.
ParentingIdentityAdaptationPrivacy My son's full real name is Duncan Zowie Haywood. As a toddler, he was called by his second name Zowie. But it was such an identifiable name during the Seventies that if I called him loudly in public places, everyone would turn to stare, so I started calling him Joey to take the pressure off.
IntegrityArtistic PurposeContributionSelf-Worth I cannot with any real integrity perform songs I've done for 25 years. I don't need the money. What I need is to feel that I am not letting myself down as an artist and that I still have something to contribute.
Artistic IdentityCreative ProcessAlter Ego I think much has been made of this alter ego business. I mean, I actually stopped creating characters in 1975 - for albums, anyway.
IntroversionAuthenticityPrivacy I don't crave applause. I'm not one of those guys who comes alive on stage. I'm much more alive at home, I think.
DreamAmbitionFocusCulture I would dream. I focused all my attention on going to America. The subculture, James Dean, the rock n' roll, the beat writers.
RepetitionExplorationPerspective There are half a dozen subjects that I return to time and time again, and that doesn't bother me. Because most of my favorite writers do that, to hunt down the same topic or theme from different directions each time.
CommunicationFamilyRegretTrust I've always regretted that I never was able to talk openly with my parents, especially with my father. I've heard and read so many things about my family that I can no longer believe anything; every relative I question has a completely different story from the last.
TruthTimeLife's BrevityFaith That's the shock: All cliches are true. The years really do speed by. Life really is as short as they tell you it is. And there really is a God - so do I buy that one? If all the other cliches are true... Hell, don't pose me that one.
AuthenticitySelf-RelianceIntegrity All my big mistakes are when I try to second-guess or please an audience. My work is always stronger when I get very selfish about it.
ArtNourishmentTransformation Art was, seriously, the only thing I'd ever wanted to own. It has always been for me a stable nourishment. I use it. It can change the way that I feel in the mornings.
AgingAcceptanceEmbracing Change I don't have a problem with ageing - in fact, I embrace that aspect of it. And am able to and obviously am going to be able to quite easily... it doesn't faze me at all.
HumilitySelf-deprecation I'm always amazed that people take what I say seriously. I don't even take what I am seriously.
PrioritiesInterestsTheatreMime I don't profess to have music as my big wheel and there are a number of other things as important to me apart from music. Theatre and mime, for instance.
ArtInterconnectednessCreativity I don't see any boundaries between any of the art forms. I think they all inter-relate completely.
TalentInitiativeSelf-ReliancePurpose I thought that I wrote songs and wrote music, and that was sort of what I thought I was best at doing. And because nobody else was ever doing my songs, I felt - you know, I had to go out and do them.
AgeismExclusionResilienceMusic Industry I'm well past the age where I'm acceptable. You get to a certain age and you are forbidden access. You're not going to get the kind of coverage that you would like in music magazines, you're not going to get played on radio and you're not going to get played on television. I have to survive on word of mouth.
OpportunityRecognitionBook ReviewsInterests I've started doing book reviews for Barnes & Noble! They saw that I did a lot of book reviews on the site, and they figured that it might not be a bad thing if they got me to do some for them as well. I gave them five categories I'd be interested in reviewing, from art to fiction to music.
FamilySelf-DiscoveryPersonal GrowthMaturity I never thought I would be such a family-oriented guy; I didn't think that was part of my makeup. But somebody said that as you get older, you become the person you always should have been, and I feel that's happening to me.