John Cale - Quotes
On the record
Memorable quotes and one-liners. Cale handles the press pretty well.
- About Cale
Tony Conrad, Nat Finkelstein, Margaret Moser, Lou Reed and others - Albums
About his recorded output - Performing
Being alive on stage - Producing
About the Zen master, Nico and credibility - Recording
In the studio
About playing the viola
"The viola is the saddest of all instruments, and no matter how fast you play you can't get away from the melancholy."
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A living legend
"Being a living legend is such a precarious livelihood. It’s like being a bar of soap in a shower which doesn’t have any water in it."
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Cracks in the sidewalk
"I use cracks on the sidewalk to walk down the street. I'd always walk on the lines. I never take anything but a calculated risk, and do it because it gives me a sense of identity. Fear is a man's best friend."
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About Brian Wilson
"What Brian came to mean was an ideal of innocence and naivety that went beyond teenage life and sprang fully developed songs. Adult and childlike at the same time. I thought how it was difficult for me not to believe everything he said. There was something genuine in every lyric. That can be a very heavy burden for a songwriter."
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Remembering Croydon
"The guys in front were slam-dancing, bopping and swaying. All those punks with their leather and chains, pushing everybody because they had taken too much speed. So I thought, try a little voodoo! I am singing, 'We could be so lonely,' swinging the chicken around by its feet, nobody in the audience knowing it was dead, 'we could be so –' Twhok! I decapitated it and threw the body into the slam dancers at the front of the stage, and I threw the head past them."
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Rock 'n' Roll
"I am a ham. I've no business being rock 'n' roll. I've said it over and over again that I'm a classical composer, dishevelling my personality by dabbling in rock 'n' roll."
"I want a song where you never know what the song is going to be. Pick two chords and if you don't have anything to say, don't say anything. Then you're al least working from a point of honesty so that people can see something grows from there."
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On being a cult artist
"I'm bent on proving that you can make living as musician and not die young and crazy like Mozart."