Lou Reed Quotes

“As with most things in life, it's that little hop at the end…”

“Don’t sell to publishing – that’s real hardcore pragmatic advice
Do whatever you want
Doesn’t matter
What if you need cash – go rob something”

“For most of what I do lyrically, the idea behind it was to try and bring a novelist’s eye to it, and, within the framework of rock and roll, to try to have the lyric there so somebody who enjoys being engaged on that level could have that and have the rock and roll too.”

“Here's to Mulberry Jane
She made jam when she came
Somebody cut off her feet
Now jelly rolls in the street.”

“I always believed that I have something important to say and I said it.”

“I am an artist and that means I can be as self-centered as I like.”

“I am tired, I am weary.
I could sleep for a thousand years,
a thousand dreams that would awake me.
Different colors made of tears.”

“I love women, I think they're great.”

“I take drugs just because in the 20th Century in a technological age living in the city there are certain drugs you have to take just to keep yourself normal like a caveman. Just to bring yourself up or down, but to attain equilibrium you need to take certain drugs. They don't getcha high even, they just getcha normal.”

“I think it's important that people don't feel alone.”

“I'll be your mirror
Reflect what you are,
in case you don't know
I'll be the wind,
the rain and the sunset
The light on your door
to show that you're home
When you think the night has seen your mind
That inside you're twisted and unkind
Let me stand to show that you are blind
Please put down your hands”

“Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony.”

“One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz.”

“Rock & roll is so great, people should start dying for it. You don't understand. The music gave you back your beat so you could dream... The people just have to die for the music. People are dying for everything else, so why not for music? Die for it. Isn't it pretty? Wouldn't you die for something pretty? ”

“She's my best friend, better than a dog or car.”

“Stephanie says that she wants to know
Why she's given half her life,
to people she hates now.”

“The most important part of my religion is to play guitar.”

“The notion that everybody's bisexual is a very popular line right now, but I think its validity is limited.”

“You do this because you like it, you think what you’re making is beautiful. And if you think it’s beautiful, maybe they think it’s beautiful.”

“You know, some people got no choice, and they can never find a voice, to talk with that they can even call their own. So the first thing that they see, that allows them the right to be, why they follow it, you know, it’s called bad luck.”

“Let's do what you fear most
That from which you recoil
But which still makes your eyes moist”

“My week beats your year.”

“There's a bit of magic in everything
And then some loss to even things out.”

“They say the president's dead
No one can find his head
It's been missing now for weeks
But no one noticed it
He had seemed so fit
And I'm sick of it
I'm sick of you
Bye bye bye”

“When you think the night has seen your mind,
That inside you're twisted and unkind,
Let me stand to show that you are blind.
Please put down you hands 'cause I see you.
I'll be you mirror, reflect what you are.”

“Give me your hungry, your tired, your poor I'll piss on 'em. That's what the Statue of Bigotry says.”

“It takes a busload of faith to get by.”

“And no kinds of love are better than others.”

“Anyone who ever had a heart,
He wouldnʻt turn around and break it.
Anyone who ever played a part,
he wouldnʻt turn around and fake it.”

“I'm still not sure I didn't die.”