Quotes by Neil Young

“Cinema is most totalitarian of the arts. All energy and sensation is sucked up into the skull, a cerebral erection, skull bloated with blood. Caligula wished a single neck for all his subjects that he could behead a kingdom with one blow. Cinema is this transfoming agent. The body exists for the sake of the eyes; it becomes a dry stalk to support these two soft insatiable jewels.”

“Film confers a kind of spurious eternity.”

Its better to burn out than to fade away.

It doesnt mean that much to me to mean that much to you.

Rock and Roll can never die.

Pegi just recorded I Dont Want to Talk About, written by Danny Whitten, the original Crazy Horse guitar player and singer whos all over Early Daze, an album of songs from the beginning of Crazy Horse that I have been working on compiling recently. Danny was every bit the artist I am, but he died of a heroin OD in the early seventies. Every time I hear Pegi sing that song, it makes me tremendously sad. She sings it so beautifully, phrasing it to break my heart. She does it justice. You can see I have some unfinished business with Danny.

Though we rush ahead to save our time, we are only what we feel

I lit a fire and sat there in my rocking chair. We lit a candle for him. It was as simple as that. I knew that what I had done may have been a catalyst in Dannys death, but I also knew that there was really nothing else I could have done. I can never really lose that feeling. I wasnt guilty, but I felt responsible in a way. Its part of what I do. Managing the band and taking care of the music is very painful at times. Its a sad story. A moment I will never forget, years I can never replace, music the world will never hear, all gone in the turning of a second.

I do enjoy writing, and I hope someone gets something interesting out of this book. I already have. Now, If I ever have to write a book that is not about me, I may be totally stumped and have writers block. We will see. Writing is very convenient, has a low expense and is a great way to pass the time. I highly recommend it to any old rocker who is out of cash and doesnt know what to do next. You could hire someone to write it for you if you cant write it yourself. That doesnt seem to matter. Just dont hire some sweaty hack who asks you questions for years and twists them into his own vision of what is right or wrong. Try to avoid doing that.

No matter how many books I write, I will eventually get to fiction. That is where Im going.

I love it when people yell at me about the environment and then I tell em Im burning 90% cleaner than them.

Piracy is the new radio.

Its cool to go places where working people are happy.

The rockets and the satellites, spaceships that were creating now, were pollinating the universe.

Earth is a flower and its pollinating.

I dont like to be labeled, to be anything. Ive made the mistake before myself of labeling my music, but its counter-productive.

The 60s was one of the first times the power of music was used by a generation to bind them together.

Im not into organized religion. Im into believing in a higher source of creation, realizing were all just part of nature.

When youre young, you dont have any experience - youre charged up, but youre out of control. And if youre old and youre not charged up, then all you have is memories. But if youre charged and stimulated by whats going on around you, and you also have experience, you know what to appreciate and what to pass by.

One new feature or fresh take can change everything.