Debbie Harry Quotes Page 2

“Music has its own emotional embodiment. It carries an emotion with it. When you associate a lyric with the music, it's much easier; but when you're standing there completely dry in front of the camera with no musical background, just a fine-tuned, get-this-emotional-story across, it's a very, very intense kind of focus.”

“Music is wonderful. Especially if there's some kind of content to it.”

“New York has always been a city of change and a city about change, and it is a back-leading development. Nobody's going to want to come to New York if it looks like another strip mall.”

“Something's that written out is okay, but it's not always a clear indication of what a person means.”

“That was always what I felt was the beauty of Rock 'n' Roll, it was entertainment and showbiz yet it had the idea of the voice of the people, it had an essence to it which was socially motivated. Not that I want to change to world, you know? But it was sort of relevant to real life, it involved the real essence of poetry or the real essence of fine art. But it was also entertainment. That was the real vitality.”

“That was the impetus for me to do music or art, because I knew if I didn't try when I was young, then I would get to be in my 40's and I'd be really unhappy that I hadn't.”

“The only person I really believe in is me.”

“The only thing I really wanted to be was a beatnik, and look what happened: I ended up being in a band.”

“The word 'iconic' is used too frequently – an icon is a statue carved in wood. It was shocking at first, when I got that reference. It was a responsibility, and it's impossible to live up to – you're supposed to be dead, for one thing.”

“We probably, as primitive people, made music before we actually had a language, and that's where language comes from.”

“We wanted to enjoy what we were doing and we had business things we had to straighten out and personnel problems and it sort of took a little time to do it.”

“You always fall for the rascal or the guy who's got a little bit of the devil in him. You can't help it.”

“You have to leave room for the other person's ego.”

“For me, performance is about forgetting what I'm wearing. Just putting it on and knowing it's right.”

“That undercurrent of the forbidden was always a part of rock.”

“I take lots of vitamins, but I don't think that's what keeps us going.”

“How can one be a woman and not be a feminist? That's my question.”

“I'm a culture vulture, and I just want to experience it all.”

“I don't really memorize every little thing I have to do because then I start to think about it too much! I like to keep it in the here and now and not what's coming up.”

“It's scary times for humanity, it seems. But as my octogenarian father tells me, "The world has seen harder times, and the world will survive." The arc of history is long, and the mess we're currently making is just a blip.”

“I have a lot of regrets, but I'm not going to think of them as regrets.”

“I really am a mystic. I don't know where I got it from.”

“Rock and roll is a misconception. It should no longer be a term for music.”

“To be an artist you have to be as much a businessman to succeed, you have to spend an equal amount of time doing business as you spend doing your craft.”

“If you were a painter and a rock and roll musi­cian and weren't established in either – to be an artist today you have to be as much a businessman to suc­ceed, you have to spend an equal amount of time doing business as you spend doing your craft.”