I`m too old to do things by half.

When I record an album I`m trying to get as close as possible to that perfect moment.

I think that everything happens for a reason, everything happens when it`s going to happen.

The music business doesn`t interest me anymore.

If it has more than three chords, it`s jazz.

I`m in this business for too long to be halfhearted about anything.

I don`t know anyone actually who does care what a critic says.

There`s a bit of magic in everything, and some loss to even things out.

I cleaned up my act because otherwise I would have kicked the bucket.

Me, I`ve concentrated on music pretty much to the exclusion of other things.

Some even claim that I`m a terror, a dictator and they`re right.

My God is rock`n`roll.

Perfect Night is minimalistic and that`s what makes it so forceful.

I`m an artist and that means I can be as egotistical as I want to be.

I think it`s pretentious to create art just for the sake of stroking the artists ego.

I always thought martial arts was the most modern choreography we could have right now, and I always wanted to put it to music.

Perfect Night has that magic and it has the raw energy that grabs you by the throat.

I don`t like overdubs, never liked them.

Take a walk on the wild side.

These are really terribly rough times, and we really should try to be as nice to each other as possible.

I can concentrate on my art.

In the late `70s I started to search for the perfect sound - whatever that might be, before that I was mainly interested in drugs, insanity and the rock`n`roll lifestyle.

I don`t like nostalgia unless it`s mine.

Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony.

I don`t really think about what the subject of my next album will be. I just know that I`m going to make another album.

Music was what bothered me, what interested me.

That`s why I survived because I still believe I`ve got something to say.

One of my rules is: Never listen to your old stuff.

I love Ornette Coleman. I love Don Cherry. I love the way those guys play.

I`m not joking around when I`ve said occasionally, trying to learn how to play a D chord properly has been a very big thing for me.

I don`t think I`m in any position to call myself a martial artist. I`m a student of the martial arts.

How can anybody learn anything from an artwork when the piece of art only reflects the vanity of the artist and not reality?

You can`t ask me to explain the lyrics because I won`t do it.

I don`t believe in dressing up reality. I don`t believe in using makeup to make things look smoother.

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

I think life is far too short to concentrate on your past. I rather look into the future.

There`s only X amount of time. You can do whatever you want with that time. It`s your time.

I tried to give up drugs by drinking.

But I`m also talented and I know when I created something great and Perfect Night is something great, no doubt, no but.

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

People think that I work out but it`s all t`ai chi.

On the release of his 2007 album "Hudson River Wind Meditations": It`s geared up to help to you to focus. I call it centering. I use the music all the time. I leave it on all day because living in the city it has an intriguing ability to absorb the outside sound and kind of weave that into itself somehow. So a car horn or a fire engine - all this background noise - just somehow filters into it in a nice way. I`m not sure that I know why, but I know that it does that.

Meditation doesn`t have to be complicated. What I do is about as simple as you can get. You could just count the beads, one, two, three, with your eyes closed or open, whatever makes you happy. And no matter what happens, keep counting. I personally like it when I can feel that I`m actually moving the beads when I`m counting. And once you make it to a minute, see if you can do a minute-and-a-half. Eventually you can do it without the beads.

[On his colleague John Cale]: "I only hope that one day John will be recognized as ... the Beethoven or something of his day. He knows so much about music, he`s such a great musician. He`s completely mad - but that`s because he`s Welsh."

"We had vast objections to the whole San Francisco scene. It`s just tedious, a lie and untalented. They can`t play and they certainly can`t write... You know, people like Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead are just the most untalented bores that ever came up. Just look at them physically, I mean, can you take Grace Slick seriously? It`s a joke! It`s a joke! The kids are being hyped."

"You can`t beat 2 guitars, bass, and drums."