Van Morrison Quotes
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A lot of people who were writing when I came through originally as a singer-songwriter have disappeared.
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When I first started drinking, everybody was doing it. That was before they discovered marijuana and all that. It was the late 50s, early 60s - it was the beginnings of the rock 'n' roll era. The main drink was like wine. And even that was a romantic throwback to something.
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I educated myself. To me, school was boring.
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We might think that we're really intellectual and we're going to check out the library to research the meaning every time somebody puts out a new record. It's still primitive stuff. It's the same now as it was at the beginning. It's no different now. Rock 'n' roll is spirit music-it's just coming through people.
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The first piece of music that captured my imagination was probably Ray Charles Live At Newport.
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I've never been comfortable working live, and I'm still not. I was always more music-oriented and less star-oriented, which is why I've never been comfortable on big stages in big halls.
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Skiffle was a name that was attached to what was, in essence, American folk music with a beat.
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The whole trip that happened in the late 60s and 70s was kind of a throwback to a lot of folk styles. I got into it as well 'cause I started with the folk styles.
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I was just getting tired of the image bullshit...that man of mystery trip and what have you. What's that all about?
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I learnt from Armstrong on the early recordings that you never sang a song the same way twice.
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The point of jazz is, you do something and then you go on.
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I deliberately try not to cater for the commercial market, so I can't see myself in competition, you know, with second or third generation rock stars.
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You learn to read the audiences after a while, and there are all different kinds of gigs.
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Won't You guide me through the dark night of the soul That I may better understand Your way... Let me purify my thoughts and words and deeds That I may be a vehicle for Thee... Give me my rapture today.
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I think Paul McGuinness and U2 created the Irish music industry. It certainly wasn't there before that.
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I put out records to this day that are not necessarily in a sequence of anything. Some could be written a while back, some not. There is no set pattern.
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[Touring] is not necessarily a priority. It's just a part of who I am as a performer. That's obviously why I'm doing it; why I'm in this business is part of me has to perform.
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My records do not require a lot of thought of 'What is this?' and 'What is that?' That would be too contrived for me.
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A famous person to themselves, they don't get up in the morning and think, I'm famous. I'm not famous to me. Famous is a perception.
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Music is spiritual. The music business is not.
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I never paid attention to what was contemporary or what was commercial, it didn't mean anything to me.
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When I started you were more in touch with the people you were playing to. There wasn't the distance or the separation that there is now.
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My thinking musically has always been more advanced - it is difficult to get it down onto paper sometimes, even now.
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There's a million things that come through when you put songs together and it's kind of difficult to pinpoint exactly what triggers it on every occasion. It's just like somebody writing a screenplay or something like that.