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David Byrne

David Byrne Quotes

Musician

David Byrne, born on May 14, 1952, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and visual artist. He is known for his unique musical style and innovative contributions to music, art, and culture. Byrne is a founding member of the iconic band Talking Heads, which achieved significant success in the 1980s and early 1990s. Beyond his musical career, Byrne has ventured into film, dance, and visual arts as well.

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Famous David Byrne Quotes

“There's a great temptation to clean everything up and make everything more perfect. You have to know when to stop and stop doing it, or you might end up with something that sounds metronomic.”

Knows Ends Might Sound Perfect Clean Temptation

Author:David Byrne

“Sometimes the European and North American public like some things to be exotic and kept at arm's length. They don't want sometimes to know that foreign artists are doing something that's at least as relevant as what's being done here.”

Knows Want Sometimes Done Artist Arms Length Relevant Exotic Being Done

Author:David Byrne

“With a lot of what we take to be true feelings, especially on pop records, we feel them because they're cleverly crafted. And because the words are written by somebody who knows how to craft words and draw on those things and convey those feelings. That doesn't mean they're dishonest. But it also doesn't mean that it's all just pure primitive emotion spilling out.”

Knows Feels Mean Feelings Emotion Know How Records Written Pure Draws Pops Being True Crafts Primitive Spilling True Feelings

Author:David Byrne

“The more you know, the more you know you don't know and the more you know that you don't know.”

Knows Knowledge

Author:David Byrne

“Living "in" a story, being part of a narrative, is much more satisfying than living without one. I don't always know what narrative it is, because I'm living my life and not always reflecting on it, but as I edit these pages I am aware that I have an urge to see my sometimes random wandering as having a plot, a purpose guided by some underlying story.”

Knows Sometimes Stories Purpose Pages Wander Narrative Plot Urges Satisfying Living My Life Reflecting Edits

Book:Bicycle Diaries

Source: Bicycle Diaries

“To some extent I happily don't know what I'm doing. I feel that it's an artist's responsibility to trust that.”

Knows Inspirational Feels Artist Responsibility Music

Author:David Byrne

“With music, you often don't have to translate it. It just affects you, and you don't know why.”

Knows Music Translate

Author:David Byrne

“PowerPoint may not be of any use for you in a presentation, but it may liberate you in another way, an artistic way. Who knows.”

Knows Way May Use Artistic Another Way Presentation Powerpoint

Author:David Byrne

“You can know or not know how a car runs and still enjoy riding in a car.”

Knows Stills Running Enjoy Know How Car Riding Riding In A Car

Author:David Byrne

“I've rarely kept my distance from kind of - I don't know if we can call it politics, but kind of, civic engagement and that kind of thing, except I tended to think, 'Well, do it yourself before you start telling other people what they should be doing.'”

People Ifs Thinking Knows Should Wells Kind Distance Engagement Civics Do It Yourself Civic Engagement

Author:David Byrne

“There's something about music that encourages people to want to know more about the person that made it, and where it was recorded, what year it was done, what they were listening to, and all this kind of stuff. There's something that invites all this obsessive behavior.”

People Knows Want Years Kind Persons Made Done Stuff Listening Behavior Made It Invites Obsessive

Author:David Byrne

“Yeah, I like to keep myself interested - I'll kind of throw myself into some area that I don't completely know or understand, that I'm not adept at, so I'm forced to swim in order to stay afloat. There's a good feeling that comes from that.”

Knows Kind Feelings Order Areas Yeah Swim Good Feeling Adept

Author:David Byrne

“Often I don't know what the song means until it's finished. Sometimes months later. I don't think that's bad. It implies that I don't know what I'm doing but-I think if you're able to follow your instincts, then that's knowing what you're doing.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Mean Sometimes Able Song Knowing Months Instinct Finished Songwriting

Author:David Byrne

“There's an old joke that you know you're in heaven if the cooks are Italian and the engineering is German. If it's the other way around you're in hell.”

Ifs Knows Way Heaven Hell Jokes Cooks Italian Engineering Old Jokes

Author:David Byrne

“We're on a road to nowhere, come on inside. Takin' that ride to nowhere, we'll take that ride. I'm feelin' okay this mornin', and you know, we're on the road to paradise, here we go, here we go.”

Knows Travel Okay Paradise

Author:David Byrne

“Deep down, I know I have this intuition or instinct that a lot of creative people have, that their demons are also what make them create.”

People Knows Creative Instinct Intuition Demon Deep Down Creative People

Author:David Byrne

About the Author

Born: May 14, 1952
Known for: Musician
Quotes: 236

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