Robert Wyatt Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• Because of my politics, people think I'm anti-American. But I was quite the reverse. What I don't like about the United States is when the government acts like an old, imperial 18th- or 19th-century European power.

  Robert Wyatt

  Thinking, Government, People

  Interview with Ryan Dombal, pitchfork.com. November 14, 2014.

  7 Copy quote

• People are quite shocked when you remind them that Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra never wrote a song that they recorded in their lives, as far as I know.

  Robert Wyatt

  Song, People, Frank

  4 Copy quote

• I find it hard to take rock groups very seriously or treat them with respect. There is something absurd about these gloomy young men getting together and banging away.

  Robert Wyatt

  Respect, Men, Rocks

  16 Copy quote

• I'm just a very primitive, infantile folk singer.

  Robert Wyatt

  Singers, Primitive, Folks

  7 Copy quote

• I get slightly irritated by people who say they're natural rebels because it just means that they're going to be against whatever anybody does, which is almost like saying you might as well leave it as it is. I'm naturally quite conformist, really. If I go to a country and they say, "You've got to drive on the right," I'm not going to drive on the left to show that I'm different. I'm able to stick to the law. I'm not a soldier for anything, either. I'm only a singer and I don't think it makes a difference what we sing.

  Robert Wyatt

  Country, Mean, Thinking

  Source: pitchfork.com

  4 Copy quote

• I think it's hypocritical to complain about the rise of China. For 50 years, we were telling everybody in the world that the big threat was Communism, so now the countries that were Communists are now rampant capitalists - and they're doing very well, in some ways much better than the UK. Well, we asked for it. We told them that's what you have to do, and they're doing it, buying up your biggest hotels in New York. You have to laugh.

  Robert Wyatt

  Country, Thinking, Laughing

  Source: pitchfork.com

  4 Copy quote

• In fact, when the fires of empire get hidden, they still stay burning underneath the moss, seething away. This is true with a lot of the countries with really difficult, impenetrable nationalist movements - countries that once had a big empire, like Turkey, England, or even in Italy, with the fascists in the middle of the last century. People who had empires, unfortunately, want them back eventually, somehow, someway.

  Robert Wyatt

  Country, People, Difficult

  Source: pitchfork.com

  4 Copy quote

• I just saw a recent television program about art, and it was saying how from the end of the Second World War, so much of what our culture is comes from not just the United States in general, but New York in particular. In my case, I can't imagine my life without the extraordinary bebop jazz revolution in New York in late '40s and '50s.

  Robert Wyatt

  Art, War, Revolution

  Source: pitchfork.com

  4 Copy quote

• I understand why Vladimir Putin is very popular in Russia - he's probably the first Russian leader to not apologize for being Russian. People always pin it down to one man, but there's hundreds of millions of Russians of various sorts. Putin does seem to be very popular in Russia, if only because he stands up for Russians wherever they are, which is exactly what Americans do with Americans, of course.

  Robert Wyatt

  Men, People, Leader

  Source: pitchfork.com

  4 Copy quote

• What hurts people a lot is taking humiliation.

  Robert Wyatt

  Hurt, People, Humiliation

  Interview with Ryan Dombal, pitchfork.com. November 14, 2014.

  4 Copy quote

• I don't want to be a professional cripple. And I don't see the suicide stuff as tragic.

  Robert Wyatt

  Suicide, Want, Stuff

  Interview with Ryan Dombal, pitchfork.com. November 14, 2014.

  5 Copy quote

• I was a latecomer to politics. Maybe I'm just very slow. I got to everything when everyone else had left.

  Robert Wyatt

  Latecomers, Left

  Source: pitchfork.com

  7 Copy quote

• I get slightly irritated by people who say they're natural rebels because it just means that they're going to be against whatever anybody does, which is almost like saying you might as well leave it as it is.

  Robert Wyatt

  Mean, People, Rebel

  Interview with Ryan Dombal, pitchfork.com. November 14, 2014.

  4 Copy quote

• I'm naturally quite conformist, really. If I go to a country and they say, "You've got to drive on the right," I'm not going to drive on the left to show that I'm different. I'm able to stick to the law.

  Robert Wyatt

  Country, Law, Different

  Interview with Ryan Dombal, pitchfork.com. November 14, 2014.

  4 Copy quote

• I'm not a soldier for anything, either. I'm only a singer and I don't think it makes a difference what we sing.

  Robert Wyatt

  Thinking, Differences, Soldier

  Interview with Ryan Dombal, pitchfork.com. November 14, 2014.

  4 Copy quote

• The cultural mix that's happened in the United States is wonderful! Funny enough, one of the most wonderful things about it is that there is no American race.

  Robert Wyatt

  Race, United States, Wonderful

  Interview with Ryan Dombal, pitchfork.com. November 14, 2014.

  4 Copy quote

• I do think there are deep structural things that are wrong in the world.

  Robert Wyatt

  Thinking, World

  Interview with Ryan Dombal, pitchfork.com. November 14, 2014.

  4 Copy quote

• I can't imagine my life without the extraordinary bebop jazz revolution in New York in late '40s and '50s.

  Robert Wyatt

  New York, Bebop, Revolution

  Interview with Ryan Dombal, pitchfork.com. November 14, 2014.

  4 Copy quote

• The United States is a country where everybody can start again.

  Robert Wyatt

  Country, United States, States

  Interview with Ryan Dombal, pitchfork.com. November 14, 2014.

  4 Copy quote

• There are a lot of composers who were fantastic, but I challenge them to write a record that you could play five times a day for two months on the radio, songs that people will want to dance to on a Saturday night.

  Robert Wyatt

  Song, Writing, Night

  Interview with Ryan Dombal, pitchfork.com. November 14, 2014.

  4 Copy quote

• What I like about popular culture is its accessibility, and I've covered popular songs because they are amazing things.

  Robert Wyatt

  Song, Culture, Accessibility

  Interview with Ryan Dombal, pitchfork.com. November 14, 2014.

  4 Copy quote

• Because I'm associated with an avant-garde sensibility, people think I'm looking down on popular culture, but I don't want to be part of a new elitism.

  Robert Wyatt

  Thinking, People, Avant Garde

  Interview with Ryan Dombal, pitchfork.com. November 14, 2014.

  4 Copy quote

• People have habits about what they think songs should be like. There's the folky thing of: "Poor me, I'm a sensitive person in a cruel world." Or the pop thing of: "Hey, look at me, I'm sexy."

  Robert Wyatt

  Sexy, Song, Thinking

  Source: pitchfork.com

  4 Copy quote

• I looked at what adults were doing and how they wanted to earn money, and I really didn't want to do that. I wanted to go away.

  Robert Wyatt

  Going Away, Adults, Want

  Interview with Ryan Dombal, pitchfork.com. November 14, 2014.

  4 Copy quote

• Clint Eastwood said, the only things America has contributed to civilization are the western and jazz. And I don't think westerns are bad, but lots of people make great cinema. But jazz is right there.

  Robert Wyatt

  Thinking, Civilization, America

  Source: pitchfork.com

  4 Copy quote

Page 2 of 4

First

← Prev

1

2

3

4

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin