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Drugs were pretty easy to quit taking. I was never addicted to anything to begin with. But then, liquor - I had to wait about another six years before I finally got around to quitting that. I'm sure glad I did.
Alex Chilton Big Star -
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Don't store unnecessary data, keep an eye on what's happening, and don't take unnecessary risks.
Chris Bell Big Star
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So many people are accustomed to written information that you really have to have a few more bells and whistles in this day and age.
Chris Bell Big Star -
I have no problem with battling for a position. I have no problem trying to beat somebody out. It's a sport, competition, so I'm used to it.
Chris Bell Big Star -
I guess what bothers me so much about what I now see going on in both Washington and in Texas is an effort to keep people from finding out about the mistakes of lawmakers and then when they're uncovered, an effort to fool people and pretend there was nothing wrong.
Chris Bell Big Star -
Texas has a lot of challenges, but if I choose to run I will talk about opening democracy to mainstream Texans and not just to a closed circle of entrenched ideologues.
Chris Bell Big Star -
Ethics in government has always been important to me.
Chris Bell Big Star -
I would love it if every talk show let me say whatever I pleased.
Chris Bell Big Star
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I spent a few years here in Memphis, in the late '70s and early '80s, where I was studying a lot of country blues players and their styles. So it seems like every record I'll do, I will appropriate these blues styles that I remember.
Alex Chilton Big Star -
I filed the ethics complaint against Tom DeLay not because I'm a Democrat and he's a Republican or even because he drew me out of my congressional seat but because he engaged in corruption to further his plans to disenfranchise voters in Texas.
Chris Bell Big Star -
I think that people need to have the courage of their convictions and not be trying to fool people into thinking that they've changed overnight.
Chris Bell Big Star -
The American people do not begrudge anyone his or her power until they start abusing it.
Chris Bell Big Star -
I never thought of myself as being a good songwriter. There are a ton of other people that are good songwriters, but I don't think I'm in the club. What I do well is perform, sometimes sing pretty good, and accompany myself well and arrange fairly well.
Alex Chilton Big Star -
You can't live your life being upset about things, but it's a lot easier to not be upset about it if you've got enough money yourself. If you're walking around broke and working a job from nine to five or seven to five, and you're really struggling to make ends meet, you start thinking about people who have ripped you off and getting pretty angry at them.
Alex Chilton Big Star
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Everywhere I go, there are all these Big Star freaks, and they’re nice little guys who are usually in college, and they’re kind of lonely and misunderstood, learning to play guitar.
Alex Chilton Big Star -
When you're just moving forward and you agree that you're just going to stick with the results, you don't allow room for too much self-doubt.
Alex Chilton Big Star -
The more alone I am, the more focused I can get. I've written things with people, some of which I liked and others I think are total travesties. Collaborating is trying to make a piece of music and get someone else to come up with the ideas. What's the fun of that?
Alex Chilton Big Star -
Sometimes I'll come up with a lick that I really love, and I'll try to put the right words to it for years. Suddenly something comes to me that works just right.
Alex Chilton Big Star -
I probably write 10 things to every one that I want to use. It's easy for me to write something that's so poppy that it's wrong for me. If I was 22 years old... it's easy for me to write something that's less mature than I am or ought to be. I'm looking for something that acts my age.
Alex Chilton Big Star -
When the Box Tops first started out, I couldn't play guitar much at all. Only after we had our first hit records did I start playing.
Alex Chilton Big Star
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If you're writing anything decent, it's in you, it's your spirit coming out. If it's not an expression of how a person genuinely feels, then it's not a good song done with any conviction.
Alex Chilton Big Star -
Fame has a lot of baggage to carry around. I wouldn't want to be like Bruce Springsteen. I don't need that much money and wouldn't want to have 20 bodyguards following me.
Alex Chilton Big Star -
I guess that my life has been a series of flukes in the record business. The first thing I ever did was the biggest record that I'll ever have.
Alex Chilton Big Star -
It's been like a bad dream I never woke from.
Alex Chilton Big Star