Townes Van Zandt Quotes

come on mama, let's rent us a boat sail down that gibraltar moat shed a tear every time we pass tangier

The sky is full of silver and gold./ Try to hide the sun./ It can't be done./ Least not for long.

I just need an overwhelming amount of love. And a nap. Mostly a nap.

Well I was born a rambler friends, and I intend to die that way. It could be twenty years from now it could be most any day. But if there ain't no whiskey and wimen lord behind those heavenly doors, I'm gonna take my chances down below and of that you can be sure.

Aloneness is a state of being, whereas loneliness is a state of feeling. It’s like the difference between being broke and being poor. — Townes Van Zandt, from the documentary Be Here To Love Me<?i> (Palm Pictures, 2005)

As I read the words to what later became ‘A Song For,’ I was brought to tears.… It was so tragically beautiful. You came running from the bedroom and asked, ‘What’s wrong babe?’ I said Townes, this new song is so beautiful. It’s bound to be my favorite. You replied, ‘Song my ass, that’s a suicide note.’”29

Perhaps when you watch all your dream lovers die You'll decide that you need a real one

Tired of the rising/tired of the felling [sic]/Forgotten the moon/the sunshine too.” He goes on with a personal message offering

Between taxes and liability insurance and this and that, we ain’t in it for the money, man … we’re out there for one guitar chord, one note, one beam of light in somebody’s mind. We travel 600 miles a day to do it. It’s not the money.

There was a mixture of darkness, light and slapstick going on. Townes could make us feel his pain, laugh and feel hopeful all at the same time. — Jimmie Dale Gilmore