Lou Reed Quotes

There's a bit of magic in everything And then some loss to even things out.

Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony.

Most of the time when I have met artists who have meant a lot to me, the experience has been well above expectation. People like Iggy, Lou Reed, Jerry Lee Lewis, Black Sabbath, Nick Cave, Hubert Selby Jr, Billy Gibbons, Al Pacino, John Lee Hooker, James Brown, Johnny Cash etc. have been really great to me. What strikes me is most of the time, the bigger the celeb/legend, the more polite and cool they are. It's the insecure ones who treat you like they're doing you a favor by shaking your hand.

You're going to reap just what you sow. Perfect Day

I'm still not sure I didn't die

Things always seem to end before they start

When you think the night has seen your mind, That inside you're twisted and unkind, Let me stand to show that you are blind. Please put down you hands 'cause I see you. I'll be you mirror, reflect what you are. I'll Be Your Mirror

Rock & roll is so great, people should start dying for it. You don't understand. The music gave you back your beat so you could dream...The people just have to die for the music. People are dying for everything else, so why not for music? Die for it. Isn't it pretty? Wouldn't you die for something pretty?

Rock & Roll is so great, people should start dying for it. You don't understand. The music gave you back the beat so you could dream. A whole generation running with a Fender bass... The people just have to die for the music. People are dying for everything else, so why not the music? Die for it. Isn't it pretty? Wouldn't you die for something pretty? Perhaps I should die. After all, all the great blues singers did die. But life is getting better now. I don't want to die. Do I? - Lou Reed (1965-1968)

Partying means drinking. It also means playing records by Lou Reed and Chicago, which I thought was a city but is also a band it turns out.

There is only one good thing about a small town You know that you want to get out - Songs for Drella

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

Let's do what you fear most That from which you recoil But which still makes your eyes moist

I think it's important that people don't feel alone.

The old sound was alcoholic. The tradition was finally broken. The music is sex and drugs and happy. And happy is the joke the music understands best. Ultra sonic sounds on records to cause frontal lobotomies. Hey, don't be afraid. You'd better take drugs and learn to love PLASTIC. All diffrent kinds of plastic- pliable, rigid, colored, colorful, nonattached plastic. - Lou Reed (1965-1968)

I love women, I think they're great.

And no kinds of love are better than others. Some Kinda Love

And then I think of the Velvet Underground's doleful song "Jesus," from their third and least renowned or appreciated album. It is my favorite. "Jesus / Help me find my proper place / Help me in my weakness / 'Cause I'm falling out of grace." The only words in the song, repeated repeatedly, composed by Lou Reed, a Jew. You see, in the hour of darkness, it is easier to turn to the Son of God than to God Himself, for some reason. I'm not sure why.

You know, some people got no choice, and they can never find a voice, to talk with that they can even call their own. So the first thing that they see, that allows them the right to be, why they follow it, you know, it’s called bad luck..

Sha la la, man...

It's just a temporary thing.

Please don't set me free Death means a lot me

I'll be your mirror Reflect what you are In case you don't know I'll be the sun The wind and the rain The light on your door To show that you're home. When you think the nights is in your mind, That inside you're twisted and unkind Let me stand to show that you are blind Please put down your hands, 'cause I see you. I find it hard To believe you don't know The beauty you are But if you don't Let me be your eyes A hand to your darkness So you won't be afraid. When you think the night is in your mind That inside you're twisted and unkind Let me stand to show that you are blind Please put down your hands, 'cause I see you. I'll be your mirror.

Lou Reed is unimpressed by applause, and lives a life detached from custom. His stare is cold and his romanticism is brutal. His songs are half-sung melodies of menace. He might drop dead any second, and is therefore the real thing. Examined ravenously like a museum exhibit, Lou Reed is evidently spiked to excess, and strangely loveable.

I don't like categorizing stuff, but women's roles all through history have been to act as hierophant or someone who's guarded the secrets or guarded the temple. I'm a girl doing what guys usually did, the way that I look, the goals and kinds of things I want to help achieve through rock. It's more heroic stuff and heroic stuff has been traditionally male. Like Hendrix and Jim Morrison and all those people. I mean, Jim Morrison was trying to elevate the word; he was the poet in rock & roll before me. He was an academic poet. Lou Reed -- another academic poet. I'm more like down-to-earth than them guys

What would the fearsome Lou Reed insist on? Boys? Girls? Drugs? No, kielbasa.

James, you’d like Lou Reed,” Michael insisted. “He was bisexual.” Their laughter turned to coughs. They were all staring at me when I turned around. I told myself to relax. “Oh, yeah?” I said. “He doesn’t sound bisexual.” Michael just shook his head, but Ronan and Glenn smiled. “They did electroshock therapy on him when he was a teenager,” Michael said. “Electro-what?” said Glenn. “They electrocuted people?” “Kind of. They zapped their brains to alter their personalities. That’s how they tried to make gay people straight back then.” They all looked at me for a response. I shrugged. “So, he was bisexual? It worked halfway?

They say no one person can do it all But you want to in your head But you can't be Shakespeare and you can't be Joyce So what is left instead You're stuck with yourself and a rage that can hurt you You have to start at the beginning again And just this moment This wonderful fire started up again When you pass through humble, when you pass through sickly When you pass through, I'm better than you all When you pass through anger and self deprecation And have the strength to acknowledge it all When the past makes you laugh and you can savor the magic That let you survive your own war You find that that fire is passion And there's a door up ahead, not a wall - "Magic And Loss" The Summation

Anyone who ever had a heart, He wouldnʻt turn around and break it. Anyone who ever played a part, he wouldnʻt turn around and fake it. Sweet Jane

I'm waiting' for my man, Got twenty-six dollars in my hand. He's never early, he's always late, First thing you learn is that you always gotta' wait' - Waiting for the Man

I'll be your mirror, Reflect what you are, In case you don't know. I'll Be Your Mirror

those were different times.

I certainly admire people who can play their instruments, but I’d rather listen to someone whose ideas outweigh their proficiency than the other way round. Who would you rather listen to, the mile-a-minute technical snoozery of Yngwie Malmsteen or the passionate and primitive chunking of Lou Reed?

She's my best friend, better than a dog or car.

The myriad choices of his fate Set themselves out upon a plate For him to choose What had he to lose

Just a perfect day, problems all left alone.

We have FCC, abandoned alimony payments, assault and battery, Homeland Security escalation, and that's before we invite the IRS to take a walk on your wild side.

she thought maybe she’d be a rock star, but she just ended up another name on the very long list of people Lou Reed was rude to. Yeah,

Lou Reed: I am so susceptible to beauty.

Lou Reed never came back to Manchester after that, all because of one bloke with a dodgy haircut and incredible aim.

Lou Reed drove Honda scooters these days, and I was a hell of a lot closer to the wild side than him.

Spasm couldn’t get laid if you sent him to a brothel with a blank cheque. He had his Lou Reed and his Bob Hope, but never his Nat King Cole.

The only thing constantly changing is change The living only become dead Your hair falling out Your liver swelled up Your teeth rot your gums and your chin Your ass starts to sag Your balls shrivel up Your cock swallowed up in its sack The only thing constantly changing is change And it's always change on your back.

I remember the ecstasy of first going to a nightclub wearing eyeliner. Drenched in hairspray and glitter, dancing to Lou Reed records. I felt as if I was living on the outside, in a realm that most people could never enter. For so long I had felt completely alone, but makeup made my isolation feel special. The world came to life – the streets were no longer grey and cold, they sparkled with sordid possibility. But the most resonant pleasures in our lives are always individually defined. When you expect the world to appreciate them they simply expose their own bland uniformity. I learnt that the more unusual you are, the more personalised pleasures the world reveals to you.

When the past makes you laugh and you can savor the magic that lets you survive your own war, you'll find that that fire is passion and there's a door up ahead - not a wall.

Bob Neuwirth: In his depravity, Lou was dignified. Dignified depravity.

Some people are like human tuinals

Stephanie says that she wants to know Why she's given half her life, to people she hates now

It takes a busload of faith to get by.

Read. You should read Bukowski and Ferlinghetti, read Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, and listen to Coltrane, Nina Simone, Hank Williams, Loretta Lynn, Son House, Robert Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Miles Davis, Lou Reed, Nick Drake, Bobbie Gentry, George Jones, Jimmy Reed, Odetta, Funkadelic, and Woody Guthrie. Drive across America. Ride trains. Fly to countries beyond your comfort zone. Try different things. Join hands across the water. Different foods. New tasks. Different menus and tastes. Talk with the guy who’s working in construction on your block, who’s working on the highway you’re traveling on. Speak with your neighbors. Get to know them. Practice civil disobedience. Try new resistance. Be part of the solution, not the problem. Don’t litter the earth, it’s the only one you have, learn to love her. Care for her. Learn another language. Trust your friends with kindness. You will need them one day. You will need earth one day. Do not fear death. There are worse things than death. Do not fear the reaper. Lie in the sunshine but from time to time let the neon light your way. ZZ Top, Jefferson Airplane, Spirit. Get a haircut. Dye your hair pink or blue. Do it for you. Wear eyeliner. Your eyes are the windows to your soul. Show them off. Wear a feather in your cap. Run around like the Mad Hatter. Perhaps he had the answer. Visit the desert. Go to the zoo. Go to a county fair. Ride the Ferris wheel. Ride a horse. Pet a pig. Ride a donkey. Protest against war. Put a peace symbol on your automobile. Drive a Volkswagen. Slow down for skateboarders. They might have the answers. Eat gingerbread men. Pray to the moon and the stars. God is out there somewhere. Don’t worry. You’ll find out where soon enough. Dance. Even if you don’t know how to dance. Read The Four Agreements. Read the Bible. Read the Bhagavad Gita. Join nothing. It won’t help. No games, no church, no religion, no yellow-brick road, no way to Oz. Wear beads. Watch a caterpillar in the sun.

On top of all that, both Transformer and the single from it are enormous hits. Lou Reed is not only a legend: he's a star. In one of the interviews he did last summer, Lou said: 'I can create a vibe without saying anything, just by being in the room.' ¶ He was right. You sit yourself down, and sure enough you become aware pretty fast that there's this vaguely unpleasant fat man sitting over there with a table full of people including his blonde bride.

Sick Boy : It's certainly a phenomenon in all walks of life. Mark "Rent-boy" Renton : What do you mean? Sick Boy : Well, at one time, you've got it, and then you lose it, and it's gone forever. All walks of life: George Best, for example. Had it, lost it. Or David Bowie, or Lou Reed... Mark "Rent-boy" Renton : Some of his solo stuff's not bad. Sick Boy : No, it's not bad, but it's not great either. And in your heart you kind of know that although it sounds all right, it's actually just shite. Mark "Rent-boy" Renton : So who else? Sick Boy : Charlie Nicholas, David Niven, Malcolm McLaren, Elvis Presley... Mark "Rent-boy" Renton : OK, OK, so what's the point you're trying to make? Sick Boy : All I'm trying to do is help you understand that The Name of The Rose is merely a blip on an otherwise uninterrupted downward trajectory. Mark "Rent-boy" Renton : What about The Untouchables? Sick Boy : I don't rate that at all. Mark "Rent-boy" Renton : Despite the Academy Award? Sick Boy : That means fuck all. Its a sympathy vote. Mark "Rent-boy" Renton : Right. So we all get old and then we can't hack it anymore. Is that it? Sick Boy : Yeah. Mark "Rent-boy" Renton : That's your theory? Sick Boy : Yeah. Beautifully fucking illustrated.

They listen to the music of idiots and amuse themselves with the sordid miseries of their businesses. They are not the things of angels or of any higher outpost that humanity might aspire to. Your loathsome vomitous businessman king is of the lowest order, his advisors crumbling mockeries of education driven by avarice. My love, dress them in the suits of mockery, and in their advanced state of stupidity and senility, burn and destroy them, so their ashes might join the compost which they so much deserve.

Coney Island Baby" You know, man, when I was a young man in high school You believe in or not, that I wanted to play football for the coach All those older guys, they said he was mean and cruel But you know, I wanted to play football, for the coach They said I was to little too light weight to play line-back So I say I'm playing right-in Wanted to play football for the coach Cause, you know some day, man, you gotta stand up straight Unless you're gonna fall Then you're gonna die And the straightest dude I ever knew Was standing right for me, all the time So I had to play football for the coach And I wanted to play football for the coach When you're all alone and lonely in your midnight hour And you find that your soul, it has been up for sale And you getting to think about, all the things you done And you getting to hate just about everything But remember the princess who lived on the hill Who loved you even though she knew you was wrong And right now she just might come shining through and the glory of love, glory of love Glory of love, just might come through And all your two-bit friends have gone and ripped you off They're talking behind your back saying, man you are never going to be a human being And you start thinking again About all those things that you've done And who it was and who it was And all the different things you made every different scene Ah, but remember that the city is a funny place Something like a circus or a sewer And just remember, different people have peculiar tastes And the Glory of love, the glory of love The glory of love, might see you through Yeah, but now, now Glory of love, the glory of love The glory of love, might see you through Glory of love, ah, huh, huh, the glory of love Glory of love, glory of love Glory of love, now, glory of love, now Glory of love, now, now, now, glory of love Glory of love, give it to me now, glory of love see you through Oh, my Coney Island baby, now (I'm a Coney Island baby, now) I'd like to send this one out for Lou and Rachel And the Lord appeared and he has one made of two Coney Island baby Man, I swear, I'd give the whole thing up for you Lou Reed, Coney Island Baby (1975)

I don't know just where I'm going But I'm goin' to try for the kingdom if I can 'Cause it makes me feel like I'm a man When I put a spike into my vein Then I tell you things aren't quite the same When I'm rushing on my run And I feel just like Jesus' son And I guess I just don't know And I guess that I just don't know I have made very big decision I'm goin' to try to nullify my life 'Cause when the blood begins to flow When it shoots up the dropper's neck When I'm closing in on death You can't help me not you guys All you sweet girls with all your sweet talk You can all go take a walk And I guess I just don't know And I guess I just don't know I wish that I was born a thousand years ago I wish that I'd sailed the darkened seas On a great big clipper ship Going from this land here to that I put on a sailor's suit and cap Away from the big city Where a man cannot be free Of all the evils in this town And of himself and those around Oh, and I guess I just don't know Oh, and I guess I just don't know Heroin, be the death of me Heroin, it's my wife and it's my life Because a mainer to my vein Leads to a center in my head And then I'm better off than dead When the smack begins to flow Then I really don't care anymore About all the Jim-Jims in this town And everybody putting everybody else down And all of the politicians makin' crazy sounds All the dead bodies piled up in mounds, yeah Wow, that heroin is in my blood And the blood is in my head Yeah, thank God that I'm good as dead Ooohhh, thank your God that I'm not aware And thank God that I just don't care And I guess I just don't know And I guess I just don't know - Heroin

Temporary Thing" Hey now, bitch, now, baby you better make your face get out of here, quick Maybe your, was getting, ah, too rich It ain't like we ain't never seen this thing before And if it turns you then around then you better hit the door But I know, oh, it's just a temporary thing Oh yeah, it's just a temporary thing You've read too many books, you've seen too many plays And it's things like this, that turn you away Hey, now, now, look, huh, look, hey look, hey look you better think about it twice I know that your good breeding makes it seem not so nice It's just a temporary thing Ah-ha, ah-ha, ah-ha, it's just a temporary thing Where's the number, where's the dime and where's the phone I feel like a stranger, I guess you wanna go back home Your mother, your father, your brother I guess they wouldn't agree with me But I don't give two shits, they're no better than me Ah-ha, it's just a temporary thing Oh yeah, been there before just a temporary thing It's just a temporary thing Ah bitch, get off my kids, temporary thing Get out, it's just a temporary thing Yeah now, home (it's just a temporary thing) Temporary thing, huh, ah-ha (it's just a temporary thing) .... (it's just a temporary thing) .... (it's just a temporary thing) (it's just a temporary thing) (it's just a temporary thing)

Don’t sell to publishing - that’s real hardcore pragmatic advice Do whatever you want Doesn’t matter What if you need cash - go rob something

I'll be your mirror Reflect what you are, in case you don't know I'll be the wind, the rain and the sunset The light on your door to show that you're home When you think the night has seen your mind That inside you're twisted and unkind Let me stand to show that you are blind Please put down your hands 'Cause I see you I find it hard to believe you don't know The beauty you are But if you don't let me be your eyes A hand to your darkness, so you won't be afraid When you think the night has seen your mind That inside you're twisted and unkind Let me stand to show that you are blind Please put down your hands 'Cause I see you I'll be your mirror I'll be your mirror I'll be your mirror I'll be your mirror I'll be your mirror

Just a perfect day, you made me forget myself I thought I was someone else, someone good Perfect Day

My week beats your year.

They say the president's dead No one can find his head It's been missing now for weeks But no one noticed it He had seemed so fit And I'm sick of it I'm sick of you Bye bye bye

for most (lyric) of what I do, the idea behind it was to try and bring a novelist’s eye to it, and, within the framework of rock and roll, to try to have the lyric there so somebody who enjoys being engaged on that level could have that and have the rock and roll too.

If I (Lou Reed) hadn't heard rock 'n' roll on the radio, I would have had no idea there was life on this planet. You know what I'm saying? Which would have been devastating - to think that everything everywhere was like it was where I came from. That would have been profoundly discouraging.

One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz.

Life's like forever becoming But life's forever dealing in hurt Now life's like death without living That's what life's like without you ... What good are these thoughts that I'm thinking It must be better not to be thinking at all A styrofoam lover with emotions of concrete No not much, not much at all ... What's good? What's good? Not much at all Life's good- But not fair at all - What's Good - The Thesis from Magic and Loss

Coney Island Baby" You know, man, when I was a young man in high school You believe in or not, that I wanted to play football for the coach All those older guys, they said he was mean and cruel But you know, I wanted to play football, for the coach They said I was to little too light weight to play line-back So I say I'm playing right-in Wanted to play football for the coach Cause, you know some day, man, you gotta stand up straight Unless you're gonna fall Then you're gonna die And the straightest dude I ever knew Was standing right for me, all the time So I had to play football for the coach And I wanted to play football for the coach When you're all alone and lonely in your midnight hour And you find that your soul, it has been up for sale And you getting to think about, all the things you done And you getting to hate just about everything But remember the princess who lived on the hill Who loved you even though she knew you was wrong And right now she just might come shining through and the glory of love, glory of love Glory of love, just might come through And all your two-bit friends have gone and ripped you off They're talking behind your back saying, man you are never going to be a human being And you start thinking again About all those things that you've done And who it was and what it was And all the different things you made every different scene Ah, but remember that the city is a funny place Something like a circus or a sewer And just remember, different people have peculiar tastes And the Glory of love, the glory of love The glory of love, might see you through Yeah, but now, now Glory of love, the glory of love The glory of love, might see you through Glory of love, ah, huh, huh, the glory of love Glory of love, glory of love Glory of love, now, glory of love, now Glory of love, now, now, now, glory of love Glory of love, give it to me now, glory of love see you through Oh, my Coney Island baby, now (I'm a Coney Island baby, now) I'd like to send this one out for Lou and Rachel And the Lord appeared and he has one made of two Coney Island baby Man, I swear, I'd give the whole thing up for you Lou Reed, Coney Island Baby (1975)

It looks like a Lou Reed–themed TGI Fridays.

To me, these were the streets of Lou Reed, Andy Warhol, the Ramones, and Patti Smith. I sucked it all up. The sounds. The smells. The traffic. The honking yellow cabs. And the stench of garbage. I felt like I was in a waking dream, intoxicated by the grime, the noise, and the hustle and bustle of the city, walking through the soundtrack of my life. It was all so loud and intense, more exhilarating and overwhelming than anything I could have imagined and all the pictures I’d already conjured in my mind while listening to “53rd & 3rd” or “Walk on the Wild Side.

I find it hard to believe you don't know The beauty you are But if you don't, let me be your eyes A hand to your darkness so you won't be afraid

1973 was the year when the United Kingdom entered the European Economic Union, the year when Watergate helped us with a name for all future scandals, Carly Simon began the year at number one with ‘You’re So Vain’, John Tavener premiered his Variations on ‘Three Blind Mice’ for orchestra, the year when The Godfather won Best Picture Oscar, when the Bond film was Live and Let Die, when Perry Henzell’s film The Harder They Come, starring Jimmy Cliff, opened, when Sofia Gubaidulina’s Roses for piano and soprano premiered in Moscow, when David Bowie was Aladdin Sane, Lou Reed walked on the wild side and made up a ‘Berlin’, Slade were feeling the noize, Dobie Gray was drifting away, Bruce Springsteen was ‘Blinded by the Light’, Tom Waits was calling ‘Closing Time’, Bob Dylan was ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door’, Sly and the Family Stone were ‘Fresh’, Queen recorded their first radio session for John Peel, when Marvin Gaye sang ‘What’s Going On’ and Ann Peebles’s ‘I Can’t Stand the Rain’, when Morton Feldman’s Voices and Instruments II for three female voices, flute, two cellos and bass, Alfred Schnittke’s Suite in the Old Style for violin and piano and Iannis Xenakis’s Eridanos for brass and strings premiered, when Ian Carr’s Nucleus released two albums refining their tangy English survey of the current jazz-rock mind of Miles Davis, when Ornette Coleman started recording again after a five-year pause, making a field recording in Morocco with the Master Musicians of Joujouka, when Stevie Wonder reached No. 1 with ‘Superstition’ and ‘You Are the Sunshine of My Life’, when Free, Family and the Byrds played their last show, 10cc played their first, the Everly Brothers split up, Gram Parsons died, and DJ Kool Herc DJed his first block party for his sister’s birthday in the Bronx, New York, where he mixed instrumental sections of two copies of the same record using two turntables.

Give me your hungry, your tired, your poor I'll piss on 'em. That's what the Statue of Bigotry says

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

Sometimes when I can't decide what I should do I think what would Andy have said He'd probably say you think too much That's 'cause there's work that you don't want to do It's work, the most important thing is work Work, the most important thing is work

As with most things in life, it's that little hop at the end…

I am tired, I am weary. I could sleep for a thousand years, a thousand dreams that would awake me. Different colors made of tears. The Velvet Underground, from “Venus In Furs," The Velvet Underground & Nico. Produced by Andy Warhol (Verve, 1967)

To become a mother, I feared, was to relinquish your status as the protagonist of your own life. Your questions were answered, your freedom was gone, your path would calcify in front of you. And yet it still pulled at me. Being a professional explorer would become largely impossible if I had a child, but having a kid seemed in many ways like the wildest possible trip. Sometimes, on the long flights I took for my stories, I would listen to “Beginning of a Great Adventure,” a Lou Reed song about impending parenthood: “A little me or he or she to fill up with my dreams,” he sings.

I take drugs just because in the 20th Century in a technological age living in the city there are certain drugs you have to take just to keep yourself normal like a caveman. Just to bring yourself up or down, but to attain equilibrium you need to take certain drugs. They don't getcha high even, they just getcha normal.

The notion that everybody's bisexual is a very popular line right now, but I think its validity is limited.

- Io sono un artista e ciò significa che posso essere egocentrico quanto mi pare.

You do this because you like it, you think what you’re making is beautiful. And if you think it’s beautiful, maybe they think it’s beautiful.

If Lou Reed seems like rock's ultimate closet queen by virtue of the fact that he came out of the closet and then went back in, it must be also observed that lots of people, especially lots of gay people, think Lou Reed's just a heterosexual onlooker, exploiting gay culture for his own ends. And who knows but that they may be right.

There’s a bit of magic in everything And then some loss to even things out. —LOU REED

Here's to Mulberry Jane She made jam when she came Somebody cut off her feet Now jelly rolls in the street.