Walter Becker Quotes

We play rock & roll, but we swing when we play. We want that ongoing flow, that lightness, that forward rush of jazz.

Walter Becker Steely Dan

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Quotes to Explore

• I think women are really self-analytical in a way that men aren't.

  

  Zoe Lister-Jones
  • Men
  • Women
  • Think

• Politics is the enemy of the imagination.

  

  Ian Mcewan
  • Imagination
  • Enemy
  • Politics

• Films are meant solely to provide entertainment. There are no lessons to be learnt and and inferences to be drawn. Has anyone become dutiful and law abiding after seeing a film that espouses these very virtues? Films can do no more than influence fashion, decor, and hairstyle trends.

  

  Madhur Bhandarkar
  • Law
  • Fashion
  • Influence

• Compassion is not a popular virtue. Very often when I talk to religious people, and mention how important it is that compassion is the key, that it's the sine-qua-non of religion, people look kind of balked, and stubborn sometimes, as much to say, what's the point of having religion if you can't disapprove of other people?

  

  Karen Armstrong
  • People
  • Important
  • Religious

• When I was starting out and had to cut my teeth and build my resume to get in, I had to basically work for free on a lot of things.

  

  Dana Brunetti
  • Work
  • Free
  • Resume

• The idea that computers can ever replace teachers and schools reveals a deep lack of understanding about the role leadership plays in student success.

  

  Wendy Kopp
  • Success
  • Understanding
  • Deep

• I don't set out to win awards. I don't think any musician does, but when you receive an award, it's an affirmation: it means that people appreciate what you do. Every award I have received is a confirmation of something I have done, and that motivates me to push a little harder.

  

  Wadada Leo Smith
  • People
  • Musician
  • Appreciate

• Cornwall bears a certain resemblance to Italy: each is like a leg or boot, but Italy stands a-tiptoe to the south, whereas Cornwall is thrust out to the west. But, whereas Italy is kicking Sicily as a football, Cornwall has but the shattered group of the Scilly Isles at its toe.

  

  Sabine Baring-Gould
  • Football
  • Group
  • Leg

• For the most part, it's a very male-dominated business. Most executives are male, so it's always sort of their vision of stuff. I'm constantly fighting against that, even when I play the wife or the girlfriend or the best friend. I always try my hardest to bring as much layering in and not make things stereotypical, but it's hard.

  

  Madchen Amick
  • Business
  • Friend
  • Wife

• Love is not the dying moan of a distant violin - it's the triumphant twang of a bedspring.

  

  S. J. Perelman
  • Love
  • Dying
  • For Her

• Different directors have different things, so when I left Mike Leigh, as it were, and I went into other projects after 'All or Nothing,' it took some getting used to - what do you mean there's a script?!?' That kind of thing.

  

  Sally Hawkins
  • Different
  • You
  • Kind

• In any work you do, you can be profound one minute, and then you be superficial the next, and you can be smart and insightful and then insipid. There can be room for all that.

  

  Maira Kalman
  • Work
  • Smart
  • Profound

• I try to stay as naive as possible so I'm not as aware as much of the risks.

  

  Sam Hunt
  • Try
  • Possible
  • Risks

• Suspicion and doubt lead to animosity and hatred.

  

  Ralph Steadman
  • Doubt
  • Lead
  • Hatred

• I'm not a good guitar player.

  

  Adam Jones
  • Good
  • Player
  • Guitar

• I put some songs on the Internet back in 2009 - that's kind of how everything started with Washed Out. I had never really planned on being in a band or anything like that. It was kind of a hobby I did on my own, just recording music.

  

  Washed Out
  • Music
  • Band
  • Internet

• If I like a book, I tend to read the author's entire collection. But I choose mainly through personal recommendations, general word of mouth and book reviews.

  

  Randa Abdel-Fattah
  • Book
  • Author
  • Choose

• When our ancestors crouched about the camp fire at night, they told each other tales of gods and heroes, monsters and marvels, to hold back the terrors of the night. Such tales comforted and entertained, diverted and educated those who listened, and helped shape their sense of the world and their place in it.

  

  Kate Forsyth
  • World
  • Night
  • Fire

• New Year's Eve to Valentine's Day is our peak season, and in many ways, Valentine's Day is our Christmas. Everybody in the world makes the same three New Year's resolutions: health, career and money, and love.

  

  Sam Yagan
  • World
  • Money
  • Love

• I had seen a lot of music movies that celebrated music or that showed the kind of joys from playing music, which is a big part of it of course, and not something that I would want to deny.

  

  Damien Chazelle
  • Music
  • Want
  • Movies

• America is tough for rock music. Rock n' roll used to be the main music for the youth, and it's not so much anymore. It's hip-hop and stuff.

  

  Taylor Hawkins Foo Fighters
  • Music
  • America
  • Rock

• Men nearly always follow the tracks made by others and proceed in their affairs by imitation, even though they cannot entirely keep to the tracks of others or emulate the prowess of their models. So a prudent man should always follow in the footsteps of great men and imitate those who have been outstanding.

  

  Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
  • Men
  • Follow
  • Tracks

• We play rock & roll, but we swing when we play. We want that ongoing flow, that lightness, that forward rush of jazz.

  

  Walter Becker Steely Dan
  • Want
  • Rock
  • Jazz