Allen Shawn Quotes
The fantasy, power, songfulness, beauty, and humor of the music itself has been not so much overlooked as rendered secondary to the discussion of it by experts. Instead of his reputation’s creating curiosity about his work, his work has been buried by (and beneath) his reputation.
Quotes to Explore
-
Read some good, heavy, serious books just for discipline: Take yourself in hand and master yourself.
-
Our children will outwit us if they want; for when it comes to technology, they hold the higher ground. Unlike other tools passed carefully and ceremonially from one generation to the next - the sharp scissors, the car keys - this is one they understand better than we do.
-
I'll always be back to the stage. I have no doubt that the stage will always call me back. There will always be a character that no one else can play, and I'll be back to play it.
-
You don't actually have control of the position people want you to be in. If they say, 'You king of the blacks,' you're king of the blacks - whether you like it or not.
-
I don't believe that human beings are necessarily monogamous.
-
Music has no subject beyond the combinations of notes we hear, for music speaks not only by means of sounds, it speaks nothing but sound.
-
God takes care of imbeciles, little children and artists.
-
I always said punk was an attitude. It was never about having a Mohican haircut or wearing a ripped T-shirt. It was all about destruction, and the creative potential within that.
-
I'm fascinated by sports, the buzz of winning, and the buzz of losing.
-
People are fond of that 'crabs in a barrel' mentality, and I'm like, 'No, there needs to be more so we can create more barrels; there doesn't need to be one barrel.'
-
I don't outline. I sit down to write, and I take the ride. If something starts to not feel right, I go back to the last place that felt like jazz to me.
-
The only thing that matters to me is getting to the work - getting to do the work. And I don't really care where it is: whether it's on stage or on television or in film.
-
Ironically, I wouldn't say I'm a massive horror fan. I love thrillers.
-
I live every day to its fullest extent and I don't sweat the small stuff.
-
I know how to tell a story to a thousand people. Sometimes I don't know how to tell a story to a piece of tape on a wall and a camera.
-
You make due with the time you have here. Hopefully when you pass on, somebody can look back and say, 'Wow, they made a difference in some kind of way.'
-
Owning a great golf course gives you great power.
-
I love the idea of being part of a campaign that captures the spirit of New York and the stories of women here, passionate about their dreams.
-
To finish a work? To finish a picture? What nonsense! To finish it means to be through with it, to kill it, to rid it of its soul, to give it its final blow the coup de grace for the painter as well as for the picture.
-
There is a big difference between No. 1 and No. 2. I don't care who wrote it. I'd love to one day have a No. 1 that I wrote, but if that ain't in the cards, whatever. My job is right now is to make the best music I can and try to get it to the people, whether it be something that I wrote or not. It's my job to be the best I can for the fans.
-
I'm from the South, so I tend to tell stories. That's how we express ourselves.
-
On 'Late Night,' it's like we're all in on the joke. That's what I wanted it to be. I'm not doing something sneaky. Inside jokes, I don't like those. We can all ride together, and everyone's on the same thing going, 'Aha, I know where you're going here.'
-
Never give up, which is the lesson I learned from boxing. As soon as you learn to never give up, you have to learn the power and wisdom of unconditional surrender, and that one doesn't cancel out the other; they just exist as contradictions. The wisdom of it comes as you get older.
-
The fantasy, power, songfulness, beauty, and humor of the music itself has been not so much overlooked as rendered secondary to the discussion of it by experts. Instead of his reputation’s creating curiosity about his work, his work has been buried by (and beneath) his reputation.
