Musicians now find themselves in the unlikely position of being legitimate. At least the IRS thinks so. – Billy Joel
I think that’s given inspiration to other musicians. I know, particularly through the 90s, a lot of bands would cite Rush as an influence. I don’t think it was so much our music, but more the way we really stuck to our guns. – Alex Lifeson
Generally my focus has been on people who make things, whether it’s writers or directors or painters or musicians. – Anton Corbijn
I love writing plays because they are living, fluid things that are energised by the producer, designers, musicians, actors and audience. – Berlie Doherty
My mother’s a singer and my mother’s father is a singer, and everyone on both sides are all country-western bluegrass musicians. – Brandi Carlile
One of the things that I loved about listening to Miles Davis is that Miles always had an instinct for which musicians were great for what situations. He could always pick a band, and that was the thing that separated him from everybody else. – Branford Marsalis
In the mid-1800s, they were known also as ‘singsong houses,’ and the courtesans were actually master musicians. – Amy Tan
By and large musicians are pretty lazy; they don’t do a whole lot. They’re usually very busy doing nothing. – Buzz Osborne
Rock musicians, and a vast array of popular-music musicians, due to their wealth, acquired through the mass of their notoriety, are able to be listened to and heard and thus are able to effect change on an international level. – Bill Dixon
Musicians don’t respect a lot of the stuff that is on TRL and a lot of musicians think that stuff on the radio is not good musically so when musicians say that they like us it obviously feels good. – Adam Rich
If you listen to a lot of the songs that are popular now, there’s very little melody in there. People love the beat. But to musicians, it’s melody, because we understand how elusive it is and how hard it is to hold. – Branford Marsalis
There were definitely bands and musicians I liked that drove my mother insane. I probably liked them all the more for it! Bjork drove my mom nuts. What I listened to was actually pretty mom-friendly for the most part. I wasn’t very rebellious. – Gillian Jacobs
There has to be an interaction of musicians on stage. Otherwise I feel too alone up there. When performing is really good, when it really works, maybe once every 15 shows, it’s very special, and you realize that’s why you do it. – Dave Gahan
There is an apprenticeship system in jazz. You teach the young ones. So even if the musicians weren’t personally that likable, they felt an obligation to help the younger musicians. – Dave Van Ronk
The Blossoms had gotten so we were working seven days a week, three or four sessions a day, which was literally killing us, physically. With the instruments that the musicians play, they can do that, but not with us using our voices. – Darlene Love
I think performers are all show-offs anyway, especially musicians. Unless you show off, you’re not going to get noticed. – Elton John
I went through all the musicians in my life who I admire as bright, intelligent, virtuosic players. – David Bowie
You could say that everything the musicians have learned and known over the years, all of their technical resources, are in a dialogue with the things they are discovering every time, as if it was the first time. – Fred Frith
We live in a world where art exists in galleries and museums, and musicians have to play the same venues over and over. – Doug Aitken
Even though it’s become a really cliched thing to see musicians working for charity, it’s still effective and it still has to be done. – George Michael
I love anyone who breaks the rules, and musicians always break the rules – in an aggressive way. – Donatella Versace
I’m not a great inventor from scratch. What I do is to use, steal, acquire, reproduce or re-cycle music from other musicians. – Michael Nyman
I was interested in music and making movies about musicians, but my own experiences, and doing what it felt like for me to be a drummer? Nah, I wasn’t interested in that. – Damien Chazelle
There are a lot of musicians in my life. But movies came first for me. That was my original passion. – Damien Chazelle
It’s the duty of all novelists, all painters, all musicians, all people who try to make art move: to look for something they feel authentically, without paying attention to styles. – Nathalie Sarraute
I’m quite ignorant about fashion and I’m colourblind, so it’s all a tad tricky. My only knowledge of that world comes through Christopher Bailey, whom I first met in 2008 when I did a campaign for Burberry that featured musicians, artists, actors and sportsmen. – Eddie Redmayne
To not be modest about it, you’ll find that with only a couple of exceptions, most of the musicians that I’ve worked with have done their best work by far with me. – David Bowie
The music that I make, the younger musicians are referring to it as ‘stretch’ music. – Christian Scott
Certainly one of the more common experiences in the jazz field is discovering someone new. Improvising musicians are capable of being musical travelers, voyagers. We want to join in on whatever we hear. There is a freedom to wander the musical landscape. – Gary Burton